Tallinn  - Estonia's president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, on Friday called on his countrymen to set aside ethnic differences in a speech in the capital, Tallinn.

"An ethnic Russian who is a resident of Estonia is not a priori the supporter of Russia's national policies, just as every Estonian is not automatically a supporter of the [Andrus] Ansip government. Citizens of democratic countries do not connect their love of country with the person of the prime minister or president who happens to be in power at the time," Ilves said.

Andrus Ansip is the current prime minister of Estonia.

Tallinn - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer restated the military alliance's desire to see Ukraine join its ranks at a high-level conference being held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday.

In his opening speech, de Hoop Scheffer said the talks were taking place at a special moment in NATO-Ukraine relations.

Tallinn - There was mixed news on the Estonian economy Friday with official statistics showing that inflation is falling, while a ratings agency downgraded the Baltic nation's outlook.

According to data released by Statistics Estonia, the percentage change of the consumer price index (CPI) in October 2008 was 9.8 per cent year-on-year, down from 10.5 per cent in September.

Tallinn - Estonian residents are obtaining Russian citizenship at nearly twice the rate they are claiming Estonian citizenship, according to figures released Friday.

Newspaper Eesti Paevaleht reported that the Russian embassy in Tallinn had granted Russian citizenship to 3,700 people during the last twelve months, while Estonian government figures showed that 1,600 people had acquired Estonian citizenship since January this year.

The newspaper quoted Russian embassy spokesman Maxim Kozlov who said "Estonia is one of the leading places in the world in terms of adoption of Russian citizenship."

Tallinn - Estonia has already given the world the internet telephone service Skype and recently opened a NATO cyberdefence academy in its capital, Tallinn.

Now the Baltic nation, which is so in love with all things online that it sometimes brands itself "e-stonia," has come up with another internet first - a virtual travel fair.

The inaugural online travel fair, entitled "Travel Expo," runs October 27 through November 5. It is the idea of Estonian company Online Expo, run by young entrepreneurs Anna Lepp and Sergei Semjonov.

Tallinn - The Estonian economy is set to remain in recession until 2010 according to a forecast published Wednesday by the Estonian central bank, Eesti Pank.

According to the base scenario of Eesti Pank's 2008 autumn forecast, Estonia's gross domestic product will decline by 1.8 per cent in 2008 and by 2.1 per cent in 2009.

The economy should pick up again either at the end of 2009 or at the beginning of 2010, resulting in an average economic growth rate for 2010 of 3 per cent, Eesti Pank believes.