ARMENIA INVITES RUSSIA TO MINE URANIUM, BUILD N-REACTOR – PM

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 25, 2007 Tuesday

Armenia has invited Russia to participate in uranium mining projects
in its territory and to build another unit of the Armenian nuclear
power plant, Prime-Minister Serzh Sarkisian told a news conference
in Moscow on Tuesday.

The invitation, Sarkisian said, is contained in the proposals he had
handed over to Russia’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov
at their talks earlier on Tuesday.

Both projects will be discussed in greater detail with the chief of
Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, on Wednesday.

Among other things the Armenian and Russian prime ministers considered
ways of "using most effectively the Russian enterprises located
in Armenia."

"It was a great pleasure for me to learn that Viktor Zubkov has already
held a conference to identify ways of saddling those enterprises with
contracts. The lack of ground transport links between the two countries
is a serious obstacle, so the throughput of existing facilities is
to be increased first and foremost," Sarkisian said.

The Armenian prime minister pointed to his country’s great potential
in terms of providing building materials – such as cement and stone –
for construction projects in Sochi and elsewhere in Russia.

"The Russian side responded to all these proposals with understanding,
as they are mutually beneficial," Sarkisian said. "I am certain that
there exist vast opportunities and we shall be able to achieve within
months the frontiers we discussed earlier today."

The Armenian prime minister invited his Russian counterpart to pay
a visit to Armenia.

"A date is still to be agreed on through diplomatic channels, but I
believe that it will take place before long," he said.