UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VISITS KAZAKHSTAN.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Yushchenko met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in Astana on 30 May for talks focused on economic cooperation, Kazakhstan Today reported.

After their meeting, Nazarbaev told journalists that the two discussed the possibility of extending Ukraine's Odessa-Brody oil pipeline to Gdansk to provide an outlet to the Baltic, as well as the construction of a 52-kilometer pipeline from Dnepropetrovsk to Ukraine's Pivdenny terminal. Nazarbaev said that in order to gain access to the Baltic through Odessa-Brody "we are ready to act pipeline shareholders" ITAR-TASS reported. For his part, Yushchenko said that Ukraine is ready to move ahead with the Single Economic Space (SES) with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. He said,"Participation in 16 of 29 documents of the first stage has already been considered and approved at government level". Yushchenko added, "We welcome all SES-related initiatives that would ensure mutual ties in transit, customs, budget, and fiscal relations" xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                Copyright (c) 2005 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx