Russia to offer European security agt at summit with EU-official

Moscow, June 26 (Itar-Tass) -Russia will offer for discussion at the Russia-EU summit the recently proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev idea on working out of a new legally binding document - the European Security Treaty, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told journalists ahead of the meeting of the leaders in Khanty-Mansiisk that is opening on Thursday.

"Such document would formalise both the specific principles of mutual
relations and mutual obligations of the states of organisations acting in
the sphere of security fro the mid-term and long-term prospect," the
official said.

"We proceed from the assumption that the common European space today
is feeling a severe deficit of the strategic format within the framework
of which the sides could conduct the joint search for ways to prevent new
division lines and imbalances and could build the common security space,"
the aide to the Russian head of state noted.

"Both Russia and the EU are interested in reducing the crisis space in
the world, however our practical approaches in this sphere to many
specific cases, from Kosovo to conflicts in the former USSR space, often
do not coincide," Prikhodko admitted. Nevertheless, Russia and the EU on a
regular basis discuss these problems, make efforts to find mutually
acceptable decisions that would meet both the interests of the parties
involved and European security in general.

In the words of the presidential aide, during the summit the sides
will exchange views on the problem of "frozen conflicts" (Kosovo, Northern
Cyprus, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the Dniester region, Nagorno-Karabakh).

"They will also touch upon other world and regional problems, in
particular linked with the developments around the Iranian nuclear
programme, Middle East settlement and the situation in Afghanistan,"
Prikhodko said.