Incident prevention meetings to be held in Abkhazia once in 3 weeks.

SUKHUM, January 21 (Itar-Tass) - The Foreign Ministry of the Republic
of Abkhazia has said that five-sided meetings on the prevention and
response to incidents will be held once in three weeks until a new U.N.
envoy was appointed. Representatives of Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the
European Union and the United Nations will attend them. Previously, the
meetings used to take place once in two weeks.
An Abkhazian Foreign Ministry source told Itar-Tass on Wednesday that
a five-sided meeting, the first in the new year, was held on Wednesday
under the chairmanship of Italian diplomat Marco Bianchini who serves with
the United Nations department for peacekeeping operations. Previously,
they used to be chaired by Johan Verbeke who stepped down late last year.
The Abkhazian side stressed once again the need to return the Bouquet
tanker. The ship, which was carrying fuel for Abkhazia, was seized by
Georgian border guards in neutral waters last August.
The Abkhazian representatives insist that the matter should remain in
the agenda of the five-sided meetings so long as the vessel and the cargo
weren't returned.
The Georgian side expressed concern over restrictions imposed on
border crossings on the Ingur River, including for schoolchildren from the
Gali district who go to school to the adjacent Zugdidi district of Georgia.
In this connection, Ruslan Kishmariya, the Abkhazian president's
envoy, explained that several checkpoints were located across the border
and the schoolchildren could cross it unhindered in designated places.
Answering the Georgian side's question on resumption of bus traffic
across the Ingur River, Kishmariya said that the problem couldn't be
solved at the moment and that the sides could return to its discussion
only after checkpoints on the Georgian-Abkhazian border would start
functioning properly.
The sides decided that the next five-sided meeting would be held in
the town of Gal on February 9.
After Wednesday's meeting, Mr. Bianchini paid his first visit to
Sukhum to meet Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba.

.Flu morbidity rate on the rise in Moscow.

MOSCOW, January 21 (Itar-Tass) - The incidence of flu and acute
respiratory viral infections increased more than twice in the Russian
capital last week.
"On January 11-17 the morbidity rate in Moscow went up 2.3 times
compared to the previous week. A total of 55,187 people fell ill, of whom
32,479 were children," the Moscow department for supervision of consumer
rights protection and human well-being reported on Wednesday.
It says that children under two years old are particularly vulnerable
to flu and respiratory viral infections. The morbidity rate among them is
8% higher than the calculated epidemic levels. In other age groups the
disease frequency is below officially calculated epidemic levels: by 18.2
% for the entire population, by 41.3% among adults, by 0.3 % among
children aged from three to six, by 8.7 % for children from seven to
fourteen years old. Flu accounts for 0.9 % in the general structure of
acute respiratory viral infections.
In the meantime, a total of 1, 075, 919 people have been vaccinated
against pandemic flu.

.Russia, Britain show interest in improving bilateral relations.

MOSCOW, January 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary from Britain's
Conservative Party, met on Wednesday to discuss the state and prospects of
Russian-British relations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said after the talks that Moscow and
London expressed mutual interest in improving bilateral relations despite
the existing problems.
"Despite the remaining problems between our two countries, the sides
expressed mutual interest in improving the situation and building
interaction both in bilateral affairs and in global issues of world
development," the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Wednesday.
"In this context, the sides noted positive dynamics in developing a
political dialogue and steady development of Russian-British trade and
economic and investment cooperation," the Russian Foreign Ministry went on
to say.
Sergei Lavrov and William Hague exchanged views on urgent
international and regional problems, including European security, Russia's
relations with the European Union and NATO, the situation with Afghanistan
and Iran's nuclear program.

-0-fil/