Belarus' president on Friday rebutted speculation that his two days of meetings with Vladimir Putin were aimed at quick creation of a Belarus-Russian union state that Putin could head once he leaves the Russian presidency next year.

Putin is constitutionally obliged to leave office at the end of his second term.

His visit to Belarus to discuss a long-dormant proposed merger of the two countries raised suggestions that he could be seeking to head a new, single state.

But at the start of a second day of meetings, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said: "I was surprised that this visit has caused all this uproar in the West. There is no wider meaning here."

The Kremlin also moved on Thursday to quash talk of an imminent merger, denying that Putin's talks with Lukashenko and other officials would touch upon a draft constitution that would describe the structure of a unified country's government.

Although those statements discouraged expectations of a quick, major development, Putin's trip to Belarus - his first since 2003 - underlined a growing interest in bringing the union state to fruition after more than a decade of off-and-on discussions and arguments.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Putin tries to speed up a union with Belarus ... to become the president of the unified state," Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said this week.

Putin does have at least one other option to keep his hand in power in Russia after next May.

On Monday, he said he supported Dmitry Medvedev to become Russia's next president. Medvedev instantly became the overwhelming favorite in the March 2 vote and he, in turn, asked Putin on Tuesday to be his prime minister, though Putin has not yet accepted.

The creation of a single state could give Putin an alternative to the Russian prime minister's post, potentially creating a job that would place him above national presidents.

A merger of the two predominantly Slavic, Orthodox Christian countries would be the first of any two ex-Soviet republics since the Soviet Union split apart in 1991, and would make many Russians proud. But it would deepen Western concerns about an increasingly assertive Russia.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a draft constitution of a union was not on the agenda of Friday's session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State. After his arrival late on Thursday, Putin dined privately with Lukashenko.

Last week, Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio quoted unidentified members of the Lukashenko administration as saying Moscow and Minsk had struck a deal under which Putin would become president of a Russia-Belarus union while Lukashenko would be speaker of its parliament.

Many analysts doubt a merger deal could be reached.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/15/2007 page11)