YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- - Putin, Schroeder Call for Cooperation

YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin called recently for stronger economic ties between their nations, and Putin urged Germany to support Moscow in its dispute with the European Union over energy prices.

Putin said the EU demand that Russia raise its domestic energy prices to world levels as a condition for joining the World Trade Organization is unfair and potentially disastrous to the Russian economy.

If Russia yields to pressure to raise prices quickly, ``it will result in the collapse of the entire Russian economy,'' Putin said at a meeting with Russian and German businessmen that was part of bilateral consultations in Yekaterinburg, a large industrial city in the Ural Mountains.

``EU bureaucrats either don't understand it or deliberately put unacceptable conditions for Russia to join the WTO,'' Putin said. ``I can't understand why they are doing it.''

At present, oil and natural gas are supplied to the Russian domestic market at a fraction of their export prices. Foreign producers, especially in the European Union, claim that this amounts to a subsidy to Russian manufacturers and want the same price for all sales.

Putin said Russia was ready to gradually raise its energy prices and discuss the process with EU officials, but added that such consultations must be separate from WTO accession talks.

Russian news agencies quoted Russian Economic Development Minister German Gref, who recently returned from negotiations with EU officials on Russia's WTO accession, as saying the talks were ``very difficult'' and had hit a ``dead end'' over the energy price issue and the use of Russian gas pipelines.

The two-day Russian-German consultations, attended by dozens of top officials and business leaders, were intended to further bolster already burgeoning economic ties.

Delegation members signed agreements on the transit of German troops and cargo across Russia to Afghanistan; expanded cooperation between their rail systems; German assistance in scrapping Russian nuclear submarines; and cultural ties to foster the study of each other's languages. They also signed a statement saying visa requirements for certain groups should be eased.

``We have colossal opportunities to further expand our ties,'' Schroeder said at a news conference with Putin, who said he said he has met with the German leader 20 times since 2000.

Putin and Schroeder have developed friendly ties, eased by the fluent German that Putin polished during his stint as a KGB officer in East Germany in the 1980s. The links between the two leaders grew even stronger this year, when they led the global opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq along with French President Jacques Chirac.

Putin said Thursday that Russia hopes a new U.N. resolution that would boost the role of the United Nations in postwar Iraq can be approved before a donors conference later this month in Madrid, signaling he is ready to work with the United States in efforts to nail down a plan.

``We would like very much to reach an agreement on the U.N. Security Council resolution that would make a good basis for the work of the conference,'' Putin said. He added, ``Of course Iraq needs funds, but they can only be used efficiently if a political settlement is reached.''

Schroeder said he and Putin ``agree on the aim'' of the resolution. He said the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis must be carried out ``step by step and in a realistic but determined way.''