Agenda of Aliyev's visit to Moscow

On Monday, Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliyev arrived in Moscow on a working visit.

Talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin are on the agenda of the first day of Aliyev's visit. According to Putin's spokesman Alexei Gromov, the upcoming meeting will be dedicated to discussion of co-operation in the sphere of fuel and energy, in particular, to the development and protection of the Caspian Sea's resources.

In addition, the two countries' leaders plan to discuss preparations for the upcoming CIS summit in Chisinau.

The Moscow talks will also be concentrated on the situation in Transcaucasia and other issues of international and bilateral co-operation.

A "full-scale" meeting of the two delegations will take place after the presidents' conversation.

According to officials in Azerbaijan's Embassy in Moscow, Baku does not rule it out that the negotiations may result in signing a Russo-Azerbaijani agreement on delimitation of neighbouring portions of the Caspian Sea bottom.

Previously, it had been supposed to sign this document during Aliyev's visit to Moscow in June, 2002, but this was postponed. Recently, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov engaged in the Caspian issues told journalists that the agreement had on the whole been prepared. He noted that only "some technical details" were to be agreed on, but this was not about to cause any problems.

According to the visit's agenda, on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani President is due to visit the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Aliyev's working visit to Moscow will be concluded on Tuesday, September 24.