Kudrin to attend conference of G-8 Finance Ministers

Russia's Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin is to visit Washington and New York April 23-28, Kudrin's spokesman Gennady Yezhov told RIA Novosti.

Kudrin is to arrive in Washington April 23, subsequently attending a conference of G-8 finance ministers in the US capital. That conference will be organized within the framework of the IMF - World Bank spring-time session, discussing efforts to deprive terrorist cells of their financial sources.

G-8 finance ministers and central-bank chief executive officers are to hold their working conference in the evening of April 23.

Alexei Kudrin is to meet US Undersecretary of State for economic issues Alan Larsen, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Germany's Minister of Finance Hans Eichel April 24.

Kudrin will attend a session of the international forex-financial committee that same day and a working dinner involving G-8 finance ministers, as well as finance ministers and financial-institution chiefs from Mideastern and North African countries.

Kudrin would be expected to meet US Treasury Secretary John Snow, Swedish Finance Minister Bosse Ringholm and Hungary's Finance Minister Tibor Draskovic April 25.

Kudrin, as well as Central Bank board chairman Sergei Ignatyev and the Russian President's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov are to meet US Federal Reserve System Chairman Alan Greenspan.

The Russian delegation is to meet the IMF's acting managing director Anna Krueger April 25.

Kudrin will take part in a plenary conference of the IMF - World Bank session that same day; conference delegates would be expected to discuss various aspects of the World Bank's development.

The Russian Finance Minister is to arrive in New York April 26, attending a session of the UN General Assembly's Economic and Social Council and meeting representatives of financial and business circles.

Kudrin is to attend a working conference dealing with ways of enhancing Russian economic competitiveness after presidential elections April 27; the conference will be organized in New York by the East - West institute.

The Russian Minister of Finance is to return to Moscow in the evening of April 28.