Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had secured a promise Tuesday from World Bank chief James Wolfensohn that he would try to help Moscow join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by 2006.
Putin also said that he would seek Wolfensohn's advice on writing off Iraqi debt - Russia had earlier promised to forgive about two-thirds of the estimated eight billion dollars owed by Baghdad to Moscow since the Soviet era in arms contracts.
Russia has said the write-off should be compensated by the respect for its Iraqi oil contracts signed during the era of Saddam Hussein, which have since been put under review by the country's new leadership.
But Putin focused his talks with Wolfensohn on Russia's tangled negotiation with the WTO.
Moscow's membership is being blocked by Beijing - among other capitals - which is negotiating over allegations that Russia is dumping its steel on China at below-market levels.
The European Union meanwhile wants Russia to introduce market rates for its electricity sector. It argues that energy subsidies make Russian factories produce goods on the cheap and that this breaks global trade rules.
At the meeting at Putin's government residence on the lush western outskirts of Moscow, the Russian leader said that he would seek Wolfensohn's advice on how to join the WTO by 2006 and ask the World Bank to send in its exports during the negotiating process.
Putin added that Russia intended to press on with reforms and that his country's current five-year economic boom - based largely on high global prices for oil - "allows us to bring our co-operation with the World Bank to a new level of quality.
"We intend to play a more active part as a bank shareholder."
Wolfensohn for his part said the World Bank was keen to help Russia in its role of chairing the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations of which it recently became a member in 2006.
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