Russian President Vladimir Putin(R) holds talks with with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi May 20, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

MOSCOW, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Kazakhstan made a series of agreements to enhance cooperation, especially in the military and energy areas during talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday. 

    The two states have reached "major agreements on interaction in the development of the armed forces and on military technological cooperation, in particular concerning the acquisition by Kazakhstan of Russian armaments," Putin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

    Putin also said the two countries had made agreements on energy.

    "Our specialists came to agreements on the joint production, processing, refinement, and marketing of Kazakh (natural) gas. Specialists assess the volumes as by and large comparable to volumes of production on larger Russian fields. Also, an agreementon prices has been reached, something that has been quite a difficult point at negotiations until now," Putin said.

    Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan and Russia had for the first time reached an agreement on cargo transportation in containers from China to Europe via Kazakhstan and Russia.

    The two countries had also made a customs tariff agreement, and deals on exports of Kazakh grain to Belarus via Russia and on coal trade, he said.

    "We will double the merchandise turnover from 10 billion dollars, taking into account work on the new joint deposit in the Kurmangazy region in the Caspian. A 50 percent to 50 percent joint venture will be operating there, and the reserves are estimated at1 billion tons of oil," Nazarbayev said. Enditem