IRAN, IRAQ ON AGENDA OF G8 FOREIGN MINISTERS’ SESSION

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 19 2006

MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti) – The June session of foreign
ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized nations will cover
topics including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa,
the U.S. under-secretary for political affairs said Wednesday.

Nicholas Burns, attending a meeting of G8 political directors in
Moscow, said a number of countries had also proposed discussing
the situation in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Moldova and
Georgia, as well as Nagorny Karabakh, a largely ethnic Armenian enclave
inside Azerbaijan, and Abkhazia, a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia.

The session of G8 foreign ministers is scheduled for June 28 prior
to the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July.