U.S. says Russia may continue with unilateral WTO bid

By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Maria Kiselyova

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday that Russia had sent signals that it might still pursue a unilateral bid to join the WTO, but Moscow denied such plans saying it would join only together with two neighbours.

"(Russian Economy) Minister (Elvira) Nabiullina seems to have indicated... they want to pursue a parallel track," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said after talks in Moscow as part of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Russia on July 6-8.

"We are still seeking clarification on this point but we are still very hopeful, very eager and very supportive of Russia acceding to the WTO," he added.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin surprised the World Trade Organisation last month by saying Russia would pull out of unilateral membership talks and seek to join the trade body with Kazakhstan and Belarus as part of a customs union.

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Russia was "really tired" after 16 years of talks despite the United States saying Russia was very close to joining the WTO while accession as part of the customs union would very problematic.

"According to most of the members of the WTO that is just unworkable, unprecedented and would only delay matters," Locke said.

FAST TRACK GUARANTEES

Nabiullina, who will also be in charge of Russia-U.S. economic and trade relations in the newly created inter-governmental commission, said there was no change to Russian plans to join the WTO as part of the customs union.