US, Russia to preserve polar bears near Chukotka and Alaska

US President George Bush has submitted a Russo-American agreement on the conservation of the population of polar bears near Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska for ratification in US Senate. Bush's covering letter to the agreement reads that the document, which was signed on October 16th, 2000 became crowned the joint Russia-US 8-year efforts to work out "a common legal, scientific and administrative framework for the conservation of polar bears in Alaska and Chukchi Peninsula both on the territory of the USA and the Russian Federation.

The document stipulates the formation of a joint Russo-American commission on polar bears that will become "a bilateral managing organisation" endowed with the right to determine the number of chaseable polar bears "to meet the interests of natives of" Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska, the US President reported.

The ratification by US Senate of the mentioned agreement between Russia and the US "will boost our leadership in the international protection of marine mammals and will set an example which should be followed by other countries," Bush stressed.