President &to=http://english.pravda.ru/usa/2001/09/01/13977.html' target=_blank>George W. Bush called Russian President &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/366/16622_Islam.html' target=_blank>Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, the White House said.
In the 11-minute call, "they agreed that we have made substantial progress in our bilateral negotiations over the past year, that we are close to completing them and that we need to continue to work hard to complete them as soon as possible," said Frederick Jones, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.
Russia intends to wrap up all bilateral talks with WTO members in the first month of 2006, Russian news agencies said.
Russia has been negotiating for entry into the 148-nation global trading body since 1994. It had hoped to join by the end of this year, but a number of outstanding issues still need to be settled.
These include differences over Russian farm trade barriers, energy price subsidies, protections of its banking and insurance sector, import duties on airplanes, cars and other products and measures to combat piracy, reports AP.
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