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Chinese FM to visit Russia

BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan will visit Russia from February 28 to March 1, a ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Tang would be visiting at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, the spokesman told reporters. He gave no further details.

Russia's Interfax news agency, citing diplomatic sources, said on Monday Tang would meet Ivanov and might meet Acting President Vladimir Putin. The Russian Foreign Ministry declined comment.

Moscow has fostered closer ties with Beijing during the past year as Russia's relations with the West worsened over NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, the war in Chechnya and U.S. anti-missile defence plans.

Interfax said one of the issues on the agenda for Tang's visit would be organising a summit between the Russian and Chinese leaders, perhaps this year.

At the last such summit, in Beijing in December, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin railed at U.S. President Bill Clinton for "flexing his muscles" and forgetting that Russia was a nuclear power.-Reuters