Ukraine's speaker urges resumption of talks on common econ space.

KIEV, October 2 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine should initiate talks with
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to create a common economic space,
parliamentary speaker Vladimir Litvin said in Odessa on Thursday.

"As concerns our foreign policy we have to refrain from discussions on
the country's accession to NATO and at Ukraine's initiative resume the
talks with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to set up a common economic
space," he said adding that neighboring countries have "a big market for
selling Ukrainian goods."
"Ukraine's authorities chose a wrong policy towards Russia," the
speaker said citing as an example President Viktor Yushchenko's position
on the conflict in South Ossetia.
"I am categorically against the policy of our president who blames
Russia for all misfortunes and historical offences. We should not focus on
tragic pages of our history, we should remember the whole history of our
country, all positive and negative moments and all those great people who
did this history," Litvin said.



.Six world powers, Iran to hold next talks in October - deputy FM.
(adds quotes)

GENEVA, October 2 (Itar-Tass) - The next talks between six world
powers and Iran on its nuclear program will take place until the end of
October, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Itar-Tass on
Thursday.
Russia sent him to the Geneva consultations, where Iranian officials
met with representatives of the United States, Britain, France, China,
Russia and Germany for the first time over the past 15 months.
"We've made progress in lifting concerns that the world community had
over Iran's nuclear program and laid the groundwork for maintaining the
negotiating process," he said.
At the same time the diplomat noted that the future consultations
"will focus on the nuclear program, but will not be restricted by the
themes of this negotiating process." In particular, "we will discuss those
proposals that recently had been put forward by the Iranian side," he said.
"There is clear understanding of cooperation between Iran and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as concerns the creation of an
uranium enrichment facility near the town of Kum," Ryabkov said.
The deputy foreign minister stressed that "negotiators' confirmation
of the scheme of low enriched uranium supplies to a research reactor in
Tehran" was one of the issues on which they made headway.
"There is progress in this direction and not little, taking into
account discrepancies in the parties' positions and a long pause between
the last meeting in this format and this one," he said.
He admitted that discrepancies between negotiators remain. "The issues
on the agenda are very complicated, with a long prehistory, and it would
be naive to expect that we will progress on all problems that we had been
discussing," Ryabkov said.
The diplomat underlined that Iran's missile launch "was not on the
agenda of the Geneva talks and this theme was not touched upon."



.South Ossetia seeks Russian price for gas.
.South Ossetia seeks Russian price for gas.

TSKHINVAL, October 2 (Itar-Tass) - South Ossetia will seek a gas price
for its consumers to be like that in Russia, the republic's prime minister
Vadim Brovtsev told reporters on Thursday.
"Our policy in relation to the gas price is based on the fact that
Russian citizens reside in South Ossetia and here the gas price should be
the same as that in North Ossetia, for instance. We can work for this
price," he said.
He noted that at present, the gas price for South Ossetia is three
times higher and even a final consumer who gets support from the republic'
s budget pays twice as much as a North Ossetian resident.
"If we have the Russian price for gas, we will be able to build the
whole economy of the republic relying on this resource," Brovtsev said.
South Ossetia gets the Russian gas directly from North Ossetia through
the Dzuarikau-Tskhinval pipeline launched on August 26.
The current gas price for South Ossetia is 7.22 roubles per 1 cubic
meter and a final consumer pays 4.18 roubles.