MOSCOW, July 15: Eduardo Aguirre, vice chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, began a week of talks with top Russian officials on Monday aimed at boosting economic ties between the United States and Russia, a US embassy spokesman said.

After three days in Moscow, where he will sign a memorandum of understanding on US exports of agricultural equipment to farmers in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, he will travel to the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg to discuss other programmes.

The visit comes less than two months after a Russia-US summit meeting in Moscow where President Bush said that Russia was to be given market economy status, facilitating US trade and investment in Russia. —AFP