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In the Livadia Palace near Yalta (Crimea) the Russian President was received by his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma. The leaders of two countries held closed-door talks and then met with representatives of Russian and Ukrainian business circles.

The main topic of discussion was prospects for trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Ukraine. Issues of creating the Common Economic Space (CES) and a free trade zone were also discussed along with realisation of joint projects in the energy sphere, machine engineering and telecommunications.

Mr Putin once again confirmed his support for the CES draft project and expressed his assurance that Russia and Ukraine may resolve all the disputes on the formation of the CES by the end of this year – earlier than with the rest of the partners (Belarus and Kazakhstan).