BUCHAREST - Romania this week began accepting bids for the sale of state oil company SNP Petrom. The government hopes to sell a 51 percent stake in Petrom by March 2004, raising about $1 billion. Analysts say Russian companies are interested in buying SNP Petrom to gain control of its distribution infrastructure. A consortium including Lukoil, Hungary's MOL and Austria's OMV could be formed. (REUTERS)

MOSCOW - Net profit of the parent company OAO Severstal according to IAS in 2002 was $177.964 million against a loss of $466.876 million in 2001, the company said in a statement. The company's financial statements were audited by KPMG Limited. During the reporting period, Severstal's revenue increased by 9.8% to $1965.216 million (from $1789.137 million), operating profit more than tripled (to $290.18 million from $92.081 million), administrative expenses and sales costs decreased by 24.56% to $73.726 million (from $97.733 million). (AK&M).

MOSCOW - The relevance of joint use of the Kama Automobile Plant's procurement production by KAMAZ and AMO ZIL has disappeared, believes KAMAZ CEO Sergei Kogogin. In April, KAMAZ and ZIL signed a framework protocol for cooperation in using KAMAZ's excess production capacity. According to Kogogin, all proposals from KAMAZ have been made, but, according to his information, "there is no interest in this project from ZIL." Meanwhile, KAMAZ was able to use excess capacity through cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Railways, Kogogin said. (INTERFAX).

TBILISI - Itera Oil and Gas Company intends to stop supplying natural gas to Tbilisi gas distribution company Tbilgaz starting August 29 due to non-payment of debt for fuel delivered in August in the amount of $708,000. As reported by Itera's representative office in Georgia, this was stated in a letter from Itera President Igor Makarov sent to the mayor's office of the Georgian capital, which owns 97% of Tbilgaz JSC. The letter notes that according to the agreement concluded between the two companies, "payment for gas supplied to Tbilisi in 2003 must be made in monthly advance payments no later than five days before the beginning of the month of supply." Itera has been the only supplier of natural gas to Georgia since 1996. The country's total debt to this company is about $100 million. (INTERFAX-AGI).

MOSCOW - Russian airlines were forced to suspend cargo flights from China to Moscow on Tuesday, a source in Russian aviation structures told Interfax. According to the source, Russian customs services raised customs duties for each Il-76 cargo plane arriving from China from $111,000 to $190,000 on August 26. Russian airlines immediately suspended cargo flights between Russia and China after receiving information about the new customs duties, the source noted. A representative of the State Civil Aviation Service of Russia confirmed that not a single cargo flight from China had been carried out on Tuesday. (INTERFAX-CHINA).

The Russian Armed Forces will be reduced to 1.062 million servicemen by the end of 2003, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced. "At the time of my appointment as Defense Minister (May 2001), the number of the Armed Forces was 1.365 million military positions; by the end of 2003, it will be 1.062 million people," he said. According to Ivanov, the reduction in the number of the Armed Forces will continue in 2004, but "will not be of such a large-scale nature." (INTERFAX).

The federal budget surplus for the first half of 2003 amounted to 81.3 billion rubles in financing produced, or 1.3% of GDP, and 184.2 billion rubles in cash execution, or 3% of GDP. These data are presented in the Finance Ministry's report on budget execution for the first half of 2003, which will be considered today at a meeting of the Russian government. (AK&M).

The budget was executed with a surplus