G8 St. Peterburg Meeting to Be Prologue to French Summit

During extraordinary consultations in Paris, the Russian and French political directors in the G8, Georgy Mamedov and Stanislas Lefevre de Laboulaye, concluded that bilateral contacts between the G8 leaders in St. Petersburg should help them to solve a series of issues at the organisation's French summit.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's press department has reported that the Russian side expressed its support for proposals made by Paris to fill the forthcoming summit with real political content. The French meeting will take place in the town of Evian in June under the chairmanship of President Jacques Chirac.

The G8 leaders will meet in St. Petersburg in May to take part in the city's tercentenary celebrations.

The press department pointed out "urgent issues of Russo-French interaction within the framework of the G8 in the interests of a peaceful solution to the Iraq and Korean problems" had been at the focus of attention during the Paris meeting.