OTTAWA - The European Union on Saturday said that while Russia had made "remarkable progress" towards restoring economic stability, it needed to pearl jewelry wholesale introduce much more sweeping and effective reforms.

Pedro Robles, the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, told a news conference that investors would stay away from Russia unless Moscow brought in transparent corporate legislation and a proper reform of the banking system.

Robles was speaking at the end of a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations which held a separate discussion with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

Robles's gloomy comments contrasted with the final G7 communique, which welcomed Russia's strong growth and what it said were significant structural reforms.

The European Union, which has a more jaundiced eye where Russia is concerned, is pressing Moscow to do more to open up its markets to foreign competition.

"We consider that Russia has made remarkable progress towards restoring macro-economic stability and equilibrium. It is true that in spite of this fact, substantial economic problems remain," Robles told a news conference.

"The economy is slowing down in spite of the good situation and investments - and this is one of the problems we have underlined - are losing dynamism."

A senior EU team held talks in Moscow last week on services, industrial tariffs, non-tariff barriers and the level of allowable subsidies to agriculture.

Russia has slapped restrictions on foreign companies getting into the banking and finance markets by putting limits on ownership by foreigners.

"Declining business profitability is expected in 2002 and is also a bad sign for the near future. (This is why) we insisted in our debate with the Russian authorities on the necessity to go further as concerns structural reforms which could improve the economic environment," said Robles.

"We consider that corporate legislation is not sufficiently transparent and the business environment is uncertain and risky."

These are the kinds of issues which Russia will have to resolve before it becomes a member of the World Trade Organisation, an accession Moscow hopes to achieve in 2003.

Robles, saying no one wanted Russia's accession to be ill-prepared, also criticized Moscow's efforts to reform the banking system.

"The banking reform plan is positive but is not enough to solve the problems existing in the financial system in Russia," he said.

"It will not be enough to wholesale pearl jewelry introduce real competitiveness between private and public banks...This means additional efforts have to be made."

The more upbeat G7 communique said members had agreed on the importance of Russia's early accession to the WTO.

"We welcomed Russia's strong growth and significant structural reforms and encourage further rogress in strengtening the financial sector (and) improving corporate governance and the investment climate," it said.

TALLINN - The majority of the Estonian citizens voted for joining the European Union, according to preliminary results of the country’s referendum held on Sunday, the Associated Press reports. 67 percent of voters voted yes, and 33 percent voted no, with two thirds of votes counted.

Estonian leaders welcomed the results of the referendum on joining the EU. The country’s President Arnold Ruutel read out his joint statement with parliament speaker Ene Ergma and Prime Minister Juhan Parts at a press conference. The high turnout in the referendum shows that people realize their responsibility for the future of the country, it is said in the statement. Estonia’s leadership expressed their gratitude to pearl jewelry wholesale the country’s citizens.

“The Estonian people have had few opportunities to decide and determine their future independently. The referendum became one of the most important choices in Estonian history that lays the groundwork for its independence and national security,” the document says.

MOSCOW - Russia has intensified its efforts to support the fragile Middle East peace process by sending high-ranking diplomats to the region, officials said Friday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov has met with Israeli and Palestinian officials earlier this week, focusing on measures to "prevent a new, dangerous outburst of violence," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released to the media.

During his talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, Fedotov "positively assessed the intention of Palestinian leadership ... to swing machines take resolute action to preserve ceasefire and neutralize extremists and organizers of acts of terror," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

During his meetings in Israel, Fedotov and Israeli diplomats agreed that "the future of Mideast peace process mustn't fall hostage to terrorists and extremists," the ministry added.

Following up on Fedotov's trip, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy for the Middle East, Andrei Vdovin, headed to the region Friday.

"Russia will do all it can to return the Israelis and the Palestinians to the peace process," Vdovin said before departure, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "The consutations will continue to prevent a spirit from confrontation from gaining the upper hand."

Russia co-sponsors the peace process along with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan for the Middle East has been thrown into jeopardy by recent Palestinian attacks on Israel and Israeli retaliaton. Palestinian militants have formally abandoned their nearly two-month unilateral cease-fire after Israel responded to a deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem last week with missile strikes on Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.

Israel on Thursday launched a helicopter strike that killed a Hamas fugitive and briefly sent bulldozers and tanks into northern Gaza after a rocket struck near the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, the militants' deepest strike yet into Israel using the crude homemade projectiles.

It was the first ground foray into Palestinian-controlled land since Israel withdrew from parts of Gaza in July under the "road map" plan.

Under growing U.S. pressure to cultured freshwater pearl take action against militants, the Palestinian authorities has frozen the bank accounts of nine Islamic charities to investigate whether they channel money to militants.

MOSCOW - Britain's ambassador in Moscow said on Tuesday there were signs that Russia, which has the power of veto in the U.N. Security Council, was moving closer to the U.S. and British position on Iraq.

Moscow has so far resisted pressure from Washington and London for tougher Security Council action against Iraq, a major economic partner whose oil wealth Russian companies hope to tap.

But as London sought to dancing pearl boost its case against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Tuesday by cataloguing his weapons capability, Britain's ambassador Sir Roderic Lyne said there were signs Moscow was moving closer to the U.S. and British positions.

"Yes, our positions are converging," Lyne told Reuters after detailing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's dossier on Iraq's weapons programme to the Russian government.

Moscow's cooperation is key to get a new resolution through the Security Council for Iraq to disarm or face military action.

"I would hope, and expect, that they (Russian, U.S. and British positions) would converge in New York around a new resolution," Lyne said.

RUSSIA WORRIES OVER OIL

Russia, with its traditionally strong pro-Arab policy and with lucrative oil contracts with Iraq at stake, has so far shrugged off U.S. warnings about a chemical, biological and nuclear weapons threat from Baghdad.

Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated in a telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush that speedy deployment of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq was his goal, and appeared to withhold Russia's support for any new U.N. resolution that would require Baghdad to disarm or face war.

Blair, who published a catalogue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which he said Saddam was ready to use, is to wholesale pearl jewelry meet Putin in Moscow in early October.

Blair told the British parliament diplomatic efforts should focus on forcing Iraq to disarm, but added: "Alongside the diplomacy there must be genuine preparedness and planning to take action if diplomacy fails".

Lyne said though Russia still had to be talked round, there had been developments in the past few days that suggested a possible change of thinking in Moscow.

He referred to comments on Monday by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov who said there should be a two-track strategy in which weapons inspectors worked inside Iraq while diplomats discussed a new U.N. resolution.

Lyne said Ivanov was "clearly expressing openness" to the idea of a new resolution.

Media speculation has grown in Moscow that Russia might seek a behind-the-scenes deal with the United States, trading support on Iraq in exchange for Washington allowing it a freer hand against Chechen rebels in neighbouring Georgia.

In an interview with Itar-Tass, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Russia had the right to defend itself against the rebels, but urged Moscow to find a political solution.

For eight years, Russia has been battling to keep its rebel province from breaking away and in recent months has suffered several humiliating military losses in Chechnya.

There have also been suggestions Moscow could be "bought off" over Iraq if Washington offered financial relief to tin cup pearl necklace compensate Moscow for billions of Soviet-era debt owed by Iraq, repayment of which would be jeopardised by any military action.

MOSCOW - An agreement on dividing the oil-rich Caspian Sea is ready "in principle," Russia's envoy to the region said Thursday, but its approval hinges on Turkmenistan's president, who has yet to make his position clear.

Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny said working groups from the five Caspian states are putting finishing touches on a document that would accompany a long-delayed presidential summit on the 10-year-old dispute.

"The declaration is ready in principle," he said on Echo of Moscow radio. He did not indicate whether it would be the final document on the Caspian's legal status that governments and foreign investors have been awaiting for years.

Russia, the United States and Iran are jockeying for a pivotal role in the Caspian region, home to biwa pearl millions of tons of fish and possibly the world's third-largest oil deposits.

Use of the sea was dictated by Soviet-Iranian treaties until the Soviet collapse in 1991 produced four new countries with conflicting claims to the Caspian: Russia, Kazakstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Kalyuzhny said all the Caspian states have agreed that the seabed would be divided up while the water would remain common, except for small coastal zones. But differences remain over how to divide the sea floor.

The declaration Kalyuzhny mentioned could be ready for a Caspian summit, which he said could be held in the fall in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "considers a summit necessary," but the initiative for the meeting lies with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, Kalyuzhny said.

Niyazov, an autocratic ruler who has created an elaborate cult of personality around himself, has insisted on having the summit in his country but has repeatedly postponed it. He also has wavered on how to pearl jewelry divide the sea.

Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakstan have pressed for dividing the sea along median lines, which would give Iran the smallest sector. Iran wants to split it up equally.