Blair, Yeltsin agree joint fight on drugs, terror

PARIS, May 27 (Reuter) Russian President Boris Yeltsin and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair agreed on Tuesday to work together in the international
fight against drugs and terrorism, a British spokesman said.

``This meeting will give a big push to cooperation in these two fields,'' the
spokesman said after Yeltsin and Blair met for the first time over breakfast
while attending the Paris signing of a NATORussia pact.

Blair will visit Moscow in the autumn when a formal pact on the issue will be
signed, the British spokesman told reporters.

``Russia serves as a conduit for drugs to the whole of the European Union
including Britain,'' he explained.

He added that the Russian mafia was no more active in Britain than elsewhere
in the EU.

The spokesman said Britain already provided funds for police training in
Russia and British police liaison officers would be posted to Moscow next
month.

Blair's autumn visit to Moscow, for which no date has yet been set, is to be
preceded by visits there by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Home Secretary
Jack Straw.