January 07, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 16, 1427

MOSCOW, Jan 6: Russia warned on Saturday it would take measures against Belarus if it insisted on a new transit tax on Russian oil, after Minsk went on the offensive in the escalating energy dispute with a judicial move to enforce the duty.

The spat could reach “a peaceful solution if we manage to convince our partners that such a tax should not exist,” said Andrei Sharonov, Russian deputy minister for economic development and trade. “If not, we will be forced to take appropriate measures.”

Belarus earlier announced it would take the Russian oil monopoly Transneft to court for not paying the tax, authorities said.

“Transneft has passed crude oil over the Belarussian border with a view to transit to other countries in violation of the law, without a customs declaration and without paying the relevant taxes,” a Belarus customs official was quoted as saying by national radio.

Saturday's announcements were the latest blows in a bitter energy dispute between ex-Soviet Belarus and Russia, its eastern neighbour and one of its few allies.

Belarus applied the transit tax from the start of the year in response to a Russian decision to impose export duties on crude oil that Belarus buys from Russia.

—AFP