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Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of the Russian space industry and cosmonauts.

The acting president said that the development and financing of the aerospace industry would soon be discussed by the Russian Security Council.

He said financing was a serious problem. Last year, the government for the first time fulfilled its [financial] obligations to cosmonauts and plans to do so again in 2000.

Mr Putin said that the main guideline for state policy in that sector was to support the national producers of spacecraft. At the same time, Russia will also fulfil its obligations under the International Space Station (ISS) project.

The acting president also congratulated the audience on Cosmonautics Day.

The meeting in the Kremlin was attended by Yury Koptev, head of the Russian Aerospace Agency, Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, an aide to the Russian president, Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonauts Sergei Krikalyov and Sergei Avdeyev, and Sergei Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Security Council.

The entire package of issues relating to the development of the space industry had been discussed earlier at a separate meeting between Putin, Koptev and Shaposhnikov.