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In opening a restricted meeting of CIS heads of state, Vladimir Putin said that the relations between CIS countries have made great strides in the past few years.

The meeting focused on Russian-American-European talks on international security and preserving of the ABM Treaty.

The discussion resulted in a declaration on keeping world’s strategic stability.

Participants in the summit endorsed a programme on combating terrorism and extremism.

Before the meeting with delegations, Mr Putin stressed that the realisation of the free trade zone agreement was Russia’s principled position. He noted that the parties had agreed on this issue during the summit.

Russia informed the meeting participants of intensive talks on bilateral agreements regarding trade privileges and indirect taxation.

Mr Putin said the successful completion of this work would remove obstacles to Russia’s ratification of the 1994 free trade zone agreement and its protocol.

The meeting’s agenda included issues related to realisation of the Council’s decisions on creating a free trade zone, an action plan for developing the CIS until 2005, an action plan for combating terrorism and extremism until 2003, and establishing a CIS Anti-Terrorist Centre and appointing its head.

The meeting also discussed the Regulations On the CIS Executive Committee, an amendment to the Regulations On the Staff for Coordination of Military Cooperation Between CIS Countries, issues related to the collective peacekeeping forces in Tajikistan and implementation of the recently adopted decisions on settlement of the Abkhaz conflict.

A joint news conference took place following the summit.