* Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev met after a summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. Putin and Nazarbayev:
- signed a joint statement and an agreement on the terms of the Eurasian Development Bank's operation in Almaty
- signed an agreement between Russia's Information Technologies Ministry and Kazakhstan's communications agency to help regulate technical issues dealing with telecommunications
- spoke for further development of strategic partnership and implementation of joint work to study and use outer space with civilian purposes to deepen integration process and strengthen Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation
- discussed the whole range of bilateral trade and economic ties
* President Vladimir Putin said:
- he hoped bilateral trade with Kazakhstan would exceed $10 billion in 2006
- Russia would continue helping Afghanistan's development and recovery
* The prime minister of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said warlord Abdul Khalim Saidullayev killed in a special operation Saturday had been planning large-scale terrorist acts in the republic
* Ingushetia's security agencies said two militants had been killed and a militant base discovered in a special operation in the North Caucasus republic
* Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday it feared that Russia's $3.7 million aid to the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia would be used to militarize the conflict zone
* A spokesman for Russia's federal space agency said the launch of Kazakhstan's first satellite KazSat was scheduled for June 18
* Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran would give an "absolutely transparent" answer to the Iran Six's package of proposals to settle the crisis around the country's nuclear program
* Russian and Chinese companies signed contracts worth $2.5 billion at an international trade and economic fair which closed in Harbin in northeast China
