WTO DEAL

    When Putin met with U.S. President George W. Bush in St Petersburg, hopes ran high that the two countries would seal a deal on Russia's longtime bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the G8 meeting.

    That deal did not come, highlighting difficulties in the talks.

    However, at their meeting later this year when Bush made a refueling stopover in Moscow en route to Asia in November, both leaders confirmed they were going to sign a deal on Russia's WTO membership.

    The accord, signed in Vietnam on the sidelines of the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting where Putin and Bush met again, capped marathon talks that had hit snags on financial services and farm produce, and it removed the last major hurdle in Russia's accession to the organization.

    U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns, writing in The Moscow Times daily newspaper, hailed the bilateral WTO agreement as "the single biggest achievement in economic relations between our two countries in over a decade."

    In two meetings in the past month, the two leaders "have demonstrated a clear appreciation of the fact that the United States and Russia matter to each other and that a healthy relationship between them matters to the rest of the world," Burns wrote.

    With the U.S. deal, Russia, the largest economy still outside the Geneva-based world trade body, moved closer to WTO membership, but it has yet to complete talks with the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.

    Georgia, which signed a deal with Russia in May 2004, announced in July this year that it would renegotiate the terms with Moscow. The Caucasus nation insisted on legalizing customs checkpoints on a certain section of its border with Russia before Tbilisi backed Moscow's WTO bid.

    Moldova and Russia are expected to sign the agreement by the year end after Russia agreed to lift its ban on Moldovan wine and meat imports.

    Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said last month that Russia might complete all required procedures and join the WTO next year.