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Albright to meet Putin on 30th

MOSCOW: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to meet Russia's Acting President Vladimir Putin at the end of January during a visit to Moscow, Itar-Tass news agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying on Friday.

Tass said Albright would arrive on January 30, two days before a planned session of Middle East peace talks at foreign ministers' level, which Russia and the United States are due to chair jointly in the Russian capital.

The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Tass report.

The meeting with Putin would be the first since the prime minister took over as acting president on New Year's eve when Boris Yeltsin announced his shock resignation.

Albright will also hold talks with her Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, focusing on progress towards ratification by Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament of the START-2 treaty, which cuts nuclear arsenals on both sides, Tass said.

A possible visit to Moscow by U.S. President Bill Clinton could also be on the agenda, it added.

Clinton, who has criticised Russia's military campaign against Islamic militants in the breakaway Chechnya region, spoke by phone to Putin on January 1 and said relations were "off to a good start".

U.S.-Russian relations have been chilly since Moscow denounced last year's Nato air strikes against Yugoslavia. Russia has also criticised Washington's attempts to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.-Reuters