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The President opened the meeting by instructing the Government to provide assistance to the flood-hit Amur Region. Mr Putin said that the interests of people evacuated from the flooded areas had to be taken into account.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov informed the meeting about the talks on the future status of the Serbian region of Kosovo. Mr Lavrov said that the Kosovo issue would be decided through the Contact Group, not on the basis of the Ahtisaari plan, but taking into account the positions of Belgrade and Pristina.

Mr Lavrov also informed the meeting about Russian and U.S. efforts to agree on a timetable of work to analyse missile proliferation threats. The first consultations will take place in Washington on July 30–31. Mr Lavrov also reported on a meeting of the Quartet, the group of international mediators working for a peace settlement in the Middle East, and its results.

Macroeconomic development indicators in June and the first half of 2007 were the main subject of a report by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov. The President noted that the indicators demonstrate that the country’s budget has a social focus but also said that fulfilling social commitments should not be done at the expense of healthy macroeconomic indicators.