The presidents of Russia and Belarus failed to find agreement on issues ranging from emergency credits to gas prices when they met today for their first bilateral meeting in four months, Reuters reported. The two former Soviet republics officially share a customs union but have been bickering for months over trade, loans and moves by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko to improve relations with the West. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted three hours of talks with Lukashenko in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Neither leader turned up to speak to the media after the negotiations. When asked if any agreements had been signed, Medvedev's chief foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko said: "No, no agreements were signed." "The presidents confirmed their desire to make extra efforts to more actively solve the problems that have stacked up in relations," he told reporters. Lukashenko, long criticised in the West as authoritarian, has irked Moscow by seeking closer ties with the European Union. When Russia in May said it was suspending a $500 million credit for Belarus -- the second tranche of a promised $2 billion rescue loan -- Lukashenko ordered his ministers to "look for allies elsewhere." Belarus has negotiated a $3.5 billion loan facility from the International Monetary Fund to help its economy deal with a slump in exports. Prikhodko said the presidents had agreed to ask their governments to hold consultations on economic cooperation. Belarus has refused to join Russia in recognising the independence of Georgia's rebel provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In July Lukashenko snubbed a Moscow summit of a Russian-led regional security summit. Lukashenko says he has been forced to seek other allies because Russia has hiked gas prices and insists Belarus should enjoy Russian domestic prices of less than $60 per 1,000 cubic metres.
