Posted on 06/30/2005 5:49:49 PM PDT by Gucho
June 30, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division was activated June 29 during a ceremony at Muthana Airfield shortly after it finished its training.
"This is an important day for the people of Iraq," said Maj. Gen. William Webster, Task Force Baghdad commander. "These men before you are all volunteers and have sworn to defend Baghdad."
The ceremony was the culmination of nine weeks of training for the Iraqi Soldiers who were trained on a variety of tasks that they will use on the streets of Baghdad, such as reflexive fire, basic marksmanship and clearing rooms.
By 4th Brigade Combat Team PAO
I am so grateful for this thread every day.
UPDATED: 07:38, July 01, 2005
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari said on Thursday that his visit to Kuwait had achieved its goal, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
Jaafari told reporters before returning home that the two sides discussed Kuwait's pledge to grant additional 60 million US dollars to help Iraq cope with electricity shortages and build more schools and hospitals.
The Iraqi Prime Minister arrived here on Tuesday after visiting Washington and Brussels where he attended an international conference on rebuilding Iraq on June 22.
Jaafari said that the withdrawal of the US-led multinational forces from Iraq should be based on a request by the elected Iraqi government.
Jaafari added that there were no obstacles to the Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations, indicating that the delay in opening embassies in each other's capital was due to technical and security reasons.
Kuwaiti Acting Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al- Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said that Jaafari's visit would do benefit to the bilateral relations marred by the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich kingdom.
Kuwait became one of Washington's major regional allies since then and allowed the US troops to use its territory as the launching pad for the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored in August last year during a visit paid by former Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to Kuwait.
Updated: 6/30/2005 8:54 PM
By: Capital News 9 web staff
A local Marine returns home from Iraq, after being part of some of the fiercest fighting in that country.
Marine Corporal Todd Rogers of East Greenbush returned home from his base in Hawaii. He spent seven months in Iraq in heavy combat. Rogers and his fellow Marines were part of the violent battle for Fallujah. He was in the city for 17 days and he said he's proud to say the city is now free.
"There were four to 5,000 insurgents in the city, when we left, there were no insurgents. Eight thousand people turned out for the vote, for the elections, we basically freed the City of Fallujah," said Rogers.
This will be Corporal Rogers' first time home before entering the Marines three years ago. He is a 1999 graduate of LaSalle Institute in Troy.
Rogers will be home for two weeks and then will return to his base in Hawaii for three months before coming home for good.
Says the era of oppression and injustice has reached its end
Friday, July 01, 2005
TEHRAN: Iran’s president elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad hailed his election triumph as a new Islamic revolution that could spread throughout the world, in a shift away from previously moderate post-vote rhetoric. “Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, a new Islamic revolution has arisen and the Islamic revolution of 1384 (the current Iranian year) will, if God wills, cut off the roots of injustice in the world,” the IRNA agency quoted the ultra-conservative as saying.
“The era of oppression, hegemonic regimes, tyranny and injustice has reached its end,” he said, in an apparent reference to Iran’s arch-foe the United States. “The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world,” “In one night, the martyrs strode down a path of 100 years,” he added. Ahmadinejad has previously been at pains to present a moderate face to the world, avoiding religious rhetoric at his post-election news conference in favour of pledges of friendship and compassion to all at home and abroad.
However these latest comments were made to a markedly different audience - the families of over 70 victims, including several MPs and the former chief justice, killed in a 1981 attack at the headquarters of the once powerful post-revolution Islamic Republic Party. The tone of the remarks harks back to the first years after 1979 Islamic revolution, when the country’s leaders frequently pledged to take the revolution beyond Iran. Ahmadinejad has frequently extolled the “purity” of those early days.
However Iran subsequently abandoned attempts to export the revolution, which the regime believes prompted Western countries and most Arab states to side with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in its 1980-1988 war with the Islamic republic. The return to such expansionist rhetoric could set alarm bells ringing in European capitals already worried about Ahmadinejad’s stance in future talks on Iran’s nuclear programmeme, as well as in neighbouring Arab countries.
Ahmadinejad, who is due to take office in early August, meanwhile hinted that he would be prepared to include outstanding ministerial officials from the outgoing government in his new administration. “I think... that there are competent directors in the country and today there are ministers who deserve to serve the people and I will use all the capacities,” he was quoted in local media as saying. afp
“I LOVE GITMO” CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED BY MOVE AMERICA FORWARD
(SACRAMENTO) – The non-profit group that supports our troops and the war against terrorism, Move America Forward (website: http://www.moveamericaforward.org/), has launched a campaign to rally public support for the Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The “I LOVE GITMO” campaign will take to the airwaves in the form of paid commercials urging Americans to support the men and women operating the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
The commercials will target those individuals who have put forth false charges about the operations at the facility so that their constituents can know about their “Blame America First” antics. One example is Illinois Senator, Dick Durbin who said GITMO and those running it had created an environment akin to the "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others."
“GITMO is a key arsenal in the fight against terrorism, and Americans must stand behind the heroic men and women of the Armed Forces who serve proudly there,” said Howard Kaloogian, Co-Chair of Move America Forward.
The campaign to support GITMO was launched on Thursday with the release of the “I LOVE GITMO” bumper sticker. Thousands of these bumper stickers have been sold in the first 24 hours they were available online at http://www.moveamericaforward.org/
“These terrorists detained are not common criminals; they are enemy combatants in our war against terrorism. They are not entitled to all of the rights that someone arrested in this country gets. Just like we held German and Japanese prisoners of war during World War II, we have to confine enemy combatants so they stop killing Americans serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Kaloogian added.
On the website Move America Forward notes that the food served to the terrorist detainees and terrorist suspects held at GITMO is better in many cases than the food being served to our troops in the Armed Services. Congressional decree prevents the military from serving MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat – vacuum packed sealed food bags served to U.S. troops) to detainees because it would be considered “abuse.”
Instead, in the past week the anti-American terrorists and terrorist suspects held at GITMO have been served:
*Orange Glazed Chicken
*Rice Pilaf
*Steamed Peas & Mushrooms
*Fruit Roupee
In addition, on Ramadan the terrorists held at GITMO are served lamb, dates and honey as part of their religious observance.
GITMO detainees also are provided prayer mats and prayer oils and are allowed to pray five times per day – something that even U.S. schoolchildren are forbidden from doing.
“In recent days we’ve seen certain liberal politicians have the audacity to undermine American troops by falsely accusing them of torture and misconduct, including bogus charges of desecrating the Koran” said Melanie Morgan, Co-Chair of Move America Forward.
“These shameless individuals, interested in selling magazines or rallying their leftist political followers, are willing to denigrate the important mission being conducted by our troops in Guantanamo Bay.
“By falsely provoking anti-American sentiment overseas, these domestic enemies who have fanned the flames of a ‘Gulag at Guantanamo’ are jeopardizing the lives and well being of our servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Morgan.
posted by Pam @ 7:48 AM Comments (3) | Trackback (0)
http://iraqwarnews.net/
US and Iraqi troops brandish 'sword' against insurgents
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 01 July 2005 0941 hrs
BAGHDAD: US marines and Iraqi soldiers pressed on with an anti-insurgency sweep west of Baghdad dubbed Operation Sword after US President George W. Bush pledged his country's troops would stay on in Iraq.
In fresh violence two Iraqis were killed and five wounded in an attack on a police chief in Baquba and two Kurdish female employees of the party of President Jalal Talabani were killed in Mosul.
Hundreds of US marines, soldiers and sailors, along with Iraqi forces, scoured the lush Euphrates valley west of the flashpoint city of Ramadi for insurgents as part of Operation Sword, launched two days ago.
The operation is "currently focusing on clearing insurgents and foreign fighters from the city of Hit," a US military statement said, adding that 13 suspects have been arrested in house raids.
"Resistance is being reported by commanders in the city as light. No foreign fighter presence has been detected within the city."
Several hundred mortar and artillery rounds, explosives, rifles and various bomb-making materials were discovered, the statement said.
The latest operation in the Sunni Arab town of Hit, 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Baghdad, comes after US-led forces wrapped up Operation Spear last week, which involved air strikes against suspected insurgent hideouts further west near the Syrian border.
In February US-led forces battled rebels in the area west of Ramadi as part of Operation River Blitz. But the insurgency proved to be resilient, reorganising itself quickly and carrying on the battle in other parts of the vast Al-Anbar province.
Resistance rages on even in Anbar's former rebel bastion of Fallujah, which was practically razed in a major assault in November. Five US marines and sailors, half of them women, were killed and 13 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack against their convoy in Fallujah one week ago.
Both US and Iraqi officials say diehard loyalists to ousted leader Saddam Hussein and militant foreign fighters brainwashed by the ideology of the Al-Qaeda network are fuelling the insurgency.
More than 10,000 civilians have been killed since the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis a year ago, according to the independent Iraq Body Count website.
Most foreign fighters, Sunni Muslim Arabs, are suspected of slipping into Iraq through the country's porous border with Syria.
A Saudi militant, Fares al-Dhaheri al-Harbi, on a new wanted list put out by Riyadh, was killed in fighting in November in Iraq, Saudi papers reported.
Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly announced last week the death in Iraq of another wanted Saudi.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, at a meeting in Yemen, called on Islamic states to show greater understanding of the horror of the violence rocking his country and to take an unambiguous stance in the war on insurgents.
"There is not a single real initiative to help the people of Iraq during the current hard circumstances," he said Wednesday. "We want their positions towards our situation to be clearer."
In a bid to improve relations with its neighbour, a delegation sent by Damascus met Wednesday night with Zebari's deputy, Hamed al-Bayati, to discuss preparations for the reopening of the Syrian embassy in Baghdad.
Bayati's office refused to give details on the meeting.
Despite the mounting casualties among Iraqi civilians and US and Iraqi troops, Bush has refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. That is something most hardline Sunni Arabs have demanded as a condition to join the political process.
Bush has argued on several occasions over the past week that a timetable would be tantamount to giving a lifeline to an insurgency that he acknowledges remains vicious and strong despite earlier assurances by Vice President Dick Cheney that it was finished.
On the ground, two Iraqis were killed and four wounded when gunmen opened fire on the vehicle of Colonel Shaalan Abdelkhaleq, a senior police chief in the restive town of Baquba, hospital and security sources said. He was wounded in the back and neck.
Two sisters working at the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party were assassinated in the northern city of Mosul, a party official said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Fund signed an agreement with the Iraqi planning ministry to train Iraqis to conduct a national census in 2007.
The last official census in Iraq was held in 1997, under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein, and found the country to have a population of 23.8 million.
- AFP/ir
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/155596/1/.html
American Forces Press Service
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, June 30, 2005 – A routine orientation flight turned out to be anything but routine, at least for three Afghan children stranded in the middle of a flooded river near Salerno, Afghanistan, June 29.
It all started as Chief Warrant Officer James Gisclair was giving an orientation flight to a pilot new to the area. He and the new pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Nathan Scott, spotted a flash flood occurring after heavy rains hit the area earlier that day. They noticed a group of people standing alongside the banks of a flooding river, pointing toward the middle as they followed its path.
"As we looked closer we saw three kids stuck on a concrete foundation with the river rushing past them," Gisclair said. "We went back to Salerno, where we asked to go back to rescue the kids. We were approved to go back and get them, and when we got back there, the water had risen to above their feet."
The pilots, flying a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter configured for medical evacuations, couldn't land close enough to pull the stranded kids to safety. They had to rely on a hoist system called a jungle penetrator. The hoist basically is a cable with a seat at the end, and it's lowered or raised with the help of the aircraft's crew chief. To rescue the children, someone had to sit on the end of the hoist while someone else lowered him to the children.
The arduous task fell to Sgt. Tyrone Jordan. As Jordan got ready to be lowered to the now panic-stricken children, Spc. Christopher Zimmerman set the winch in motion, lowering him toward the rapidly moving water.
"They were real scared -- scared and cold. Shivering, in fact," said Jordan. "They didn't want to come to me at first, but when I smiled and held out my hand they came running."
The hoist could only hold three people at a time, so Jordan took the two youngest boys, who he guesses were ages 5 and 8, with him up to the helicopter.
"They were really scared of heights, I think," he said. "One of them panicked and kicked me off the hoist when I put them into the aircraft, but thanks to Zimmerman I was secured to the cable and was able to pull myself back on to it."
Gisclair and Scott flew the helicopter a short distance away to let the two children out before going back for the last one.
"We flew them about three football fields away," Gisclair said. "We set them down in an open backyard and then went back for the last kid."
The crowd of onlookers, which had looked disappointed and even angry when the aircrew flew away after first spotting the children, had now swelled to about 600 people, Gisclair said. The aircrew had no way to tell them they had to go to Salerno Air Base before they could rescue the children, he said. In the end, it didn't matter, and their intent soon was clear enough for all too see.
"They were happy to see us, I could tell," he said. "They were clapping and waving their hands at us when we picked up and set down the first two. The kids were scared, but they were safe."
The third boy, who Jordan guesses was 10, came quickly to the aircraft. "He wasn't scared at all of me or the helicopter, but he was cold and shivering very badly," Jordan said. "The wind near the water was whipping around pretty good, and the water was flowing very fast."
The aircraft's pilots and crew are made up of a hodgepodge of units from across the world. Gislair and Zimmerman are from the 68th Medical Evacuation Company in Hawaii and Alaska, and Scott is from the 159th Medical Evacuation Company from Germany. Jordan also is based out of Germany with the 45th Medical Evacuation Company.
U.S. soldiers brought food and school supplies to residents of the Khadamiyah area in Baghdad.
By U.S. Army Spc. Erin Robicheaux - 256th Brigade Combat Team
CAMP TIGERLAND, Iraq, June 30, 2005 — The 256th Brigade Combat Team Civil Affairs and the 256th Brigade Combat Team’s 199th Forward Support Battalion collaborated on June 25 to bring 15 tons of food, two tons of school supplies, and more than 2,000 Beanie Babies to the residents of the Khadamiyah area in Baghdad.
The items were gifts from the Association of Korean Americans and Operation Iraqi Children. The local Government Information Center connected the soldiers with various charity organizations to help distribute the supplies to citizens of Khadamiyah and Sadr City.
U.S. Army Maj. Adam Shilling from Denham Springs, La., 256th Brigade Combat Team civil affairs officer, said the food packs are designed for emergency situations, and he wanted to make sure the less-fortunate citizens in the district were taken care of in case one should arise.
“Each pack weighs five tons and includes rice, beans, spaghetti, cooking oil, noodles, and canned goods,” he said.
It took about a week to coordinate the project, and Shilling said U.S. soldiers from A Company, 199th Forward Support Battalion picked up the supplies and took them out to the site and escorted the convoy for the operation.
First Sgt. Gilbert Matthews, senior enlisted non-commissioned officer for A Company, 199th Forward Support Battalion, from Breaux Bridge, La., said his soldiers were very excited about the mission and it all ran smoothly.
“Everything went well. It was a large task, but we made it happen,” he said.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Gaudet, left, and Maj. Adam Shilling unload over two tons of school supplies donated by the Association of Korean Americans and Operation Iraqi Children to citizens of Khadamiyah and Sadr City. The soldiers are assigned to 256th Brigade Combat Team civil affairs team. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Benoit)
The 199th is no stranger to missions of this kind. As a support battalion, it is their job to ensure soldiers in other camps who fall under the 256th Brigade Combat Team receive the necessary supplies to keep daily operations functional.
“We’re always bringing the basic necessities, such as water, food, and basically anything that needs to be hauled to other sites,” said Matthews.
Staff Sgt. Michael Gaudet, from Lafayette, La., a noncommissioned officer for the 256th Brigade Combat Team civil affairs team, said the reaction of a woman manager of the Government Information Center stood out among all others.
“When she saw all of the food, she could barely talk. She kept saying, ‘My heart, my heart!’” he said.
Once she saw the school supplies and how the soldiers were helping the children in the area, she could not contain herself.
“We brought her outside and showed her all of the school supplies, and she actually cried,” said Gaudet.
June 30, 2005 Thursday
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, June 29: Afghan Transport Minister Inayatullah Qasmi has reiterated his government’s allegation that Pakistan is providing refuge to Taliban and is involved in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.
Talking to journalists here on Wednesday after the ceremony to hand over 23 buses to Kabul, he said he stood by the statement of the Kabul administration that Pakistan was involved in sponsoring Taliban-led attacks and providing them shelter.
Referring to recent arrest of three Pakistanis on the charge of planning to kill US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmey Khalilzad, Mr Qasmi claimed that the arrests were an evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in Taliban attacks in his country.
The statement from the Afghan minister in Islamabad came despite the fact that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had recently talked to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on telephone twice to express concern over similar allegations by the Afghan authorities.
Answering a question about a recent allegation of the Afghan government that Osama bin Laden and some of his leading comrades were hiding in Pakistan, the minister said he did not want to comment as he did not deal with such issues.
He said terrorism needed to be uprooted and Afghanistan and Pakistan were committed to eliminate the menace. He added Afghanistan wanted greater economic ties with Pakistan and a boost in the economies of the two countries would help reduce unemployment and ultimately help minimize terrorism in the region.
He said Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan had gone up to $1 billion in 2004 from $30 million during the Taliban regime and the trade balance was in the favour of Pakistan.
He said the purpose of his visit to Islamabad was to discuss with Pakistani authorities the issue of smooth transportation between Pakistan and Afghanistan as currently there were many obstacles.
June 29, 2005
LODI -- Four relatives of a father and son held on terror-related charges said they have been summoned to testify before a federal grand jury because they refused to talk to federal investigators.
They are relatives of Hamid Hayat, 22, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, both indicted and being held without bond on charges of lying to the FBI.
Arslan Hayat, 16, another son of Umer Hayat, was subpoenaed along with three cousins: Sadiq Shoaib, Usama Ismail and Kaashif Altaf.
Ismail, 19, told The Record newspaper of Stockton that they were given subpoenas because they refused to submit to questioning by FBI agents. He said an agent offered to drop the subpoena if he agreed to be questioned.
Ismail previously told reporters he was with Hamid Hayat much of the time he was in Pakistan and denied that his cousin attended a terror camp. He said Hamid Hayat, who was in Pakistan to get married, is more interested in cricket than politics. Ismail said he would repeat those statements in his testimony to the grand jury.
The four risk being placed in jail if they don't testify. The proceeding was scheduled for Thursday.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said she couldn't comment, and an FBI spokeswoman did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press.
Hamid Hayat is charged with two counts of lying to federal investigators when he said he did not attend a terrorism camp in Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. His father faces a single count of lying by denying his son attended the camp.
The FBI said the elder Hayat later admitted flying his son to Pakistan and paying for the camp, which was run by the friend of a relative.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing a religious leader being held on immigration charges as part of the investigation said the Lodi Muslim Mosque board had no authority to fire his client over the weekend.
Saad Ahmad said the firing of Shabbir Ahmed will have no affect on his immigration case. The federal government says Ahmed violated his visa, which required him to be employed as an imam, or Islamic spiritual leader.
He is being held with a second imam and that man's son on similar alleged visa violations.
01 Jul 2005 00:07:36 GMT
Source: Reuters
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, June 30 (Reuters) - Central American leaders agreed on Thursday to back the creation of a regional rapid response force to fight drug traffickers, terrorists and youth gangs that export violent crime across borders.
"A rapid response team would allow us to effectively prosecute crime and criminals," said Honduran President Ricardo Maduro. "Whether it's gangs or drug traffickers or terrorists, we're talking about transnational crimes."
Maduro spoke at a meeting on regional security in the Honduran capital with leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fisk attended the talks and called for more attention to fighting gangs that fuel violence in major U.S. cities.
"We want to strengthen defense mechanisms, especially in terms of gangs," he told a news conference.
The United States will not be part of the rapid response team, which will begin with units of police, military, prosecutors and judges in the Central American countries, with the aim of eventually joining forces and operating on a cross-border basis.
As part of the security effort, the United States, Mexico and Central American countries will exchange law enforcement information.
The United States also plans to fund a law enforcement academy in El Salvador to train officials from across the region to fight organized crime.
The United Nations says gang members number some 30,000 in Honduras, 20,000 in El Salvador and 10,000 in Guatemala.
The gangs, known as "maras," proliferated in Los Angeles in the 1980s when a flood of migrants fled Central America's civil wars and poverty and adapted to U.S. gang culture.
In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a law ordering non-U.S. citizens who were sentenced to more than a year in jail to be deported after serving their time. More than 20,000 gang members have been sent home to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in recent four years, sowing terror in their homelands.
"We want U.S. help in fighting gangs, above all in terms of information," Maduro said. "Many gang members are deported from that country, and we want to know about it so we can act in our country to prevent crime by these people."
AlertNet news
Thu Jun 30, 2005
MOSCOW (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the start of a four-day visit to Russia with military, economic and energy cooperation expected to head the agenda.
Hu kicked off his tour by joining Putin for an informal meeting at his residence in Novo-Ogarevo outside Moscow, where Putin announced that joint military exercises would be held later this year.
Russian news agencies have quoted military sources as saying that the exercises will be dubbed "Friendship 2005" and will take place in August.
Hu welcomed what he said was a "positive tendency" in relations between the two giant neighbours, welcoming the fact that border issues have been "definitively resolved."
The Chinese leader arrived in Moscow earlier Thursday and will also visit Novosibirsk in Siberia during his visit. After Russia, Hu goes on to Kazakhstan and to the Group of Eight summit in Scotland.
Hu and Putin were meeting for a second time Friday in the formal setting of the Kremlin, where they were expected to sign a joint declaration on the "international order in the 21st century."
The document reflects Moscow's hopes of forming a united front with Beijing, in the face of Washington's growing influence in the former Soviet Union and especially Central Asia, Russian media said.
"Russia and China with one voice declare the inadmissibility of efforts at monopolising world affairs, the dividing of states into the leaders and the led, the imposition from outside of models of social development, the application of double standards," a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said earlier.
Beijing is also eyeing Russian energy deals to fuel its own booming economy.
Beijing wants a pipeline to be built from Russia's Siberian oil fields to China, possibly branching off from a major pipeline lobbied for by China's rival Japan.
"The sides have reached a common opinion concerning questions such as construction of a pipeline between China and Russia, exploitation of oil and gas deposits, deliveries of oil..." Hu said in an interview Thursday in Russia's Izvestia newspaper.
Russian officials have been cautious on the pipeline route, while analysts said it may take another 10 years for China to realize its hopes of securing natural gas from the huge Kovykta field in Irkutsk region.
While oil deliveries by China by rail should reach 10 million tonnes annually next year, the routing of a pipeline to China will depend on the success of still outstanding work at the Siberian oil fields, Valery Nesterov, an analyst with Troika Dialog brokerage house, said.
"Much will hinge on the success or failure of exploration work in east Siberia," Nesterov said.
In the security sphere, Hu, in an interview this week, voiced hope for "close cooperation with Russia in resolving the North Korea nuclear issue, in the fastest possible resumption of six-party talks and ensuring peace and stability in the region."
For Russia, security cooperation is also key, but with Moscow's interests particularly aimed at strengthening regional security through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which comprises Russia, China and four Central Asian countries.
By such cooperation, Russia hopes to form an axis of cooperation between Moscow, Beijing and the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, aimed at more effectively resisting "destabilizing external influence' -- meaning the growing influence of the West," Kommersant newspaper said earlier.
Beyond the issues of security and energy cooperation the countries are keen to raise trade levels.
Hu on Thursday said the aim was to raise bilateral trade from around 20 billion dollars (16.6 billion euros) currently to some 60 billion or 80 billion dollars by 2010.
Russia's hope is to increase energy cooperation, but also in the technology sphere, Izvestia newspaper said Thursday, noting that Russia hopes to build more nuclear power stations in China as work is nearly finished on a first reactor there.
A growing sense of accord between the two countries was reinforced earlier this month when Moscow and Beijing signed an agreement on the route of their 4,300 kilometre (2,700 mile) border, ending a 40-year dispute.
Putin and Hu are to attend a meeting of the SCO heads of state in the Kazakh capital Astana from July 5 to July 6, before heading to the G8 summit in Scotland from July 7 to July 8.
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