.Russian seacraft engaged in anti-piracy op to call into Omani port.

MOSCOW, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - Auxiliary seacraft The Lena, which is
assigned to the detachment of Russian naval ships ensuring safe commercial
navigation in the oceanic areas adjoining the Horn of Africa, is expected
to make a business visit to the Omani port of Salalah.
The Lena, a tanker, will stay there for two days, a spokesman for the
Russian Navy said.
After the visit, the ship will rejoin the detachment and will continue
performing the main operative duty.
The detachment is led by the big antisubmarine ship The Admiral
Chabanenko of the Russian North Fleet. On Monday, the ship escorted a
regular commercial convoy through the pirate-infested areas of the sea in
the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden, the spokesman
said.
He indicated that the ships that used the Russian naval protection
this time were The Free Neptune, which waves the Liberian flag, The
Dollart /Gibraltar/, and The Vinaship /Vietnam/.
"A total of four crewmembers of the Dollart are Russian citizens," the
naval spokesman said.

.Qatari minister calls for dialogue btw producers, consumers of gas.

KUWAIT CITY, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - A dialogue between the producers
and consumers of natural gas is essential to stabilizing the situation on
the market of gas, Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah
said Tuesday as he addressed an international conference on the processing
of natural gas.
He indicated that a number of countries producing liquefied gas speak
against establishing a tie-up between the prices of gas and crude oil, as
they fear this might make gas prices unstable.
Al Attiyah said the world is evidencing a rise of world prices for
crude while the prices for gas remain unchanged.
The conference in Doha has brought together about 300 experts in the
field of gas processing from Europe, Asia and North America.
Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied gas. According to
Al Attiyah, it plans bringing the exports of this fuel to 77 million tons
by the end of 2010.

.Chairman of Russian, US Armed Forces staff may have meeting in Moscow.

WASHINGTON, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - Chief of the Russian Armed Forces
General Staff, General Nikolai Makarov, and the Chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, may have a meeting ion Moscow
next week to discuss a new bilateral treaty due to replace the START-1
that expired at the end of last year.
Well-informed sources said Tuesday the Russian and American sides are
coordinating the exact date of Adm Mullen's visit to Moscow.
Both top military commanders have had several personal meetings to
date, including a meeting in Helsinki last October and a meeting in Geneva
in November.
Prior to that, Adm Mullen made a visit to Moscow in July and Gen
Makarov's return visit to the U.S. is being considered now.
The main problem of the current talks - the drafting of a replacement
for the now defunct strategic armaments reduction treaty - is obvious.
Along with this, Gen Makarov and Adm Mullen co-chair the Russian-U.S.
workgroup in charge of bilateral relations in the sphere of defense, which
reports to the Bilateral Presidential Commission.
Adm Mullen told the CNN Sunday that Washington should build up
cooperation with Moscow on defense matters, although he declined to
specify the possible dates at which the new strategic armaments reduction
agreement could be signed.
He spoke about the prospects for this in abstract enough terms, saying
he hopes the document will be finalized within the next several weeks or
months.
Addressing a news briefing on the issue in December, Adm Mullen said
in an answer to a question from Itar-Tass that the U.S. needs the kind of
a treaty that could be ratified by U.S. lawmakers.

.New Russian movie to be released in France.

PARIS, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - A movie by Russian film director Pavel
Lungin, The Czar, is released to the public at large in France Wednesday.
The movie reaped applause and critics' laudations at Cannes last year
and the French spectators are looking forward to watch Lungin's new work
now.
He is known to European spectators for his previous movie, The Island.
The Czar has big chances to become a cultural event of the year in
France, a film reviewer told Itar-Tass. It is not surprising therefore
that it is released here at the start of the Russia-France Year.
The movie, in which Lungin raises the problem of relationship between
faith and the supreme state power, seethes with tragic motives and
intellectual complexity.
"I don't rule out the Europeans have resolved the issue already but
anyway it's worthwhile looking at it again," Lungin told the French
reporters.
The movie's director of photography, Tom Stern, also directed
photography for Clint Eastwood's Invictus, due on release in France later
this week.
It is noteworthy that Stern's positive response to a proposal to film
The Czar put off the filming of Eastwood's movie for several months.
-0-kle