Russia and Belarus have failed to agree...

Belarus benefited from significant discounts on Russian oil imports in 2009, and is again seeking preferential treatment this year. Russia says it is willing to eliminate all duties on oil supplied to Belarus for domestic consumption, but wants oil bound for European markets to be subject to duty. Russia has warned Belarus that it will have to pay full duty on all oil delivered while no agreement is in place.

"Belarusian and Russian delegations again failed to reach a compromise and to agree on the terms of oil supplies to Belarus," Alexander Timoshenko said.

The delegations of Russia and Belarus met on Saturday in the Russian government.

A source in the Russian president"s administration said Dmitry Medvedev offered to supply duty-free some 6.3 million metric tons of oil for domestic consumption during the December 10 meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus, however, requested Russia to supply up to 30 million metric tons of oil

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