Moscow  - Russia's defence spending will increase 27 per cent in 2009, news agency Interfax quoted Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as saying on Tuesday.

"Nearly 2.4 trillion rubles (94.23 billion dollars) will be allocated for the needs of national defence and security," Putin was quoted as saying. "This is an increase of 27 per cent."

The announcement comes on the heels of Russia's crushing defeat of Georgian forces on the former Soviet satellite's soil last month.

Brussels - The August war in Georgia highlights the need for the European Union and Kazakhstan to work together, especially on energy issues, officials from the two sides said on Tuesday.

But the war is not likely to stop Kazakh companies investing in Georgian energy pipelines, Kazakh Trade Minister Vladimir Shkolnik told journalists after a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

"Any investment is an economic decision and always carries a certain risk, but I imagine in this case the risks will be minimal," he said.

Moscow / Caracas  - A Russian delegation arrived in Caracas Tuesday as Moscow moves to restore Soviet-era ties in South America heightening tensions with the United States already strained over the crisis in Georgia.

Two Russian, nuclear-capable bombers were carrying out exercises over the Caribbean from an air base in Venezuela on Tuesday, and the two countries plan joint naval games before the year is out.

The delegation, led by powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's deputy Igor Sechin, was on day two of a regional tour that began on the communist island of Cuba.

Oslo  - High metal prices have fuelled interest in breaking up a Russian cruiser that sank off northern Norway in 2004, reports said Tuesday.

"We have been approached by some eight, nine serious Norwegian and foreign companies that want to break up the ship," Kjetil Aasebo of the Norwegian Coastal Administration told the Aftenposten newspaper.

The Coastal Administration has been put in charge of getting rid of the wreck, and hopes to have selected a bidder by December with the aim of removing the ship by next summer.

Moscow  - Russian prosecutors launched a flight safety inquiry on Tuesday into flagship carrier Aeroflot after a crash that killed 88 people, the general prosecutor's office said.

The Aeroflot Boeing 737 crashed near Russia's Ural mountains as it readied to land in the city of Perm on a flight from Moscow. Twenty-one foreigners and seven children were among the dead.

Aeroflot said nationals of Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey and Italy were among the victims.