Moscow - Russia's nuclear energy monopoly Rosatom agreed on construction of a new power plant in Russia's European exclave of Kaliningrad, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko inked the deal Wednesday for the construction of the plant about 120 km from the capital of the Baltic Sea exclave between Poland and Lithuania.

The plant will have two reactors with a total capacity of 2,300 megawatts by the first stage of construction in 2015.

When plans for the plant were announced in April, Kiriyenko highlighted the export potential of the project.

The Rosatom head also said the company was prepared to allow up to 49 per cent of the plant to be held by foreign investors.

Riga - The Baltic states on Tuesday condemned Russia's decision to recognize two breakaway Georgian regions, saying it would not help finding solutions for peace in the region.

Russia's decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia was a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, Lithuania's Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said.

"Russia's move is a deliberate breach of international law and the principles of stability in Europe," Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said.

Ramallah - Russia's decision to recognise the independence of
Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was
"regrettable," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

"It (the decision) puts Russia in opposition to a number of (United
Nations) Security Council resolutions to which it is a party," she told
a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after meeting
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Tuesday
recognizing the breakaway regions' independence, after Russian

Almaty, Aug. 26: The five republics of Central Asia and Russia need to consider adopting a united approach to ward off external threats, particularly from the West, said a Kazakh professor of history.

Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of a Central Asian and Caucasian security cooperation moot, Professor Marat E. Shaikhutdinov, Director of the Institute of World Economy and Politics (IWEP), said that recent conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia had left the leaderships and people of Central Asia quite concerned about Central Asian and Euro- Asian security.

Stockholm - Strained relations with Moscow over the recent conflict in Georgia will not affect the construction of a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to provide Russian gas directly to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.

Speaking during a visit to Stockholm for talks with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Merkel said the approval process would be carried out in all the countries affected and brought to a conclusion.

"The pipeline is a strategic European project," Merkel said.