Ukrainian govt proposes quitting several CIS agreements

MOSCOW. Nov 8 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian government has asked the Verkhovna Rada to endorse Ukraine's withdrawal from the agreement between the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the conservation and use of genetic resources of cultivated plants.

A bill terminating Ukraine's participation in the aforementioned agreement, which was signed in Minsk on June 4, 1999, was approved at a government meeting on Tuesday, Ukrainian media said, citing the government's representative to the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk.

The government also halted Ukraine's cooperation with Russia and Belarus as part of the CIS agreement on cooperation in combating economic crimes, Melnichuk said.

The Ukrainian government's cooperation with the governments of the Russian Federation and Belarus as part of the aforementioned accord, which was signed in Moscow on April 12, 1996, was stopped "due to the drastic change of the circumstances."