here are nearly 650 newspapers and magazines in the country, but most of them are not readable. 20 newspapers and nine magazines were closed down in the first half of this year.

The Matbuot Tarqatuvchi (Press Distributor) joint-stock company says that the majority of republican newspapers and magazines are suffering from poor sales.

For example, in the first four months this year 223,000 newspapers published in Tashkent were not sold. This figure for the first six months of this year was 400,000. Twenty tonnes of paper was wasted as a result.

'Narodnoe Slovo' blames this on the founders of those publications. They overlook "the spiritual and educational aspects" of the publishing business, it says.

"The print run of certain publications in the republic is falling with every passing year. A year ago, for instance, the `Fidokor' newspaper had a print run of 40,000 copies, now it is between 4,000 and 5,000."

The figure for the main central newspapers such as `Pravda Vostoka' and `Narodnoye Slovo' does not exceed 10,000. The article also says the republican newspapers and magazines are on sale mainly in the capital Tashkent and towns, only a small part of them is delivered to District centres and they do not reach villages, schools or libraries.

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Women Short program

1. Irina Slutskaya, Russia, 0.5
2. Maria Butyrskaya, Russia, 1.0
3. Fumie Suguri, Japan, 1.5
4. Tatyana Malinina, Uzbekistan, 2.0

Results from the World Chess Championship in India

Round 3
Men's Results

Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) - Tkachiev, V. (FRA) - 0.5

Round 2
Men's Results

Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) - Tregubov, P. (RUS) - 2.5-1.5 (1-0, 0-1, 0.5, 1-0)

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n Friday morning, president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, left for Minsk to take part in the meeting of the council of CIS states. He held a number of bilateral meetings with the heads of certain CIS states the same day.

Before the summit of the heads of CIS states, President Islam Karimov had a number of bilateral meetings. The leader of Uzbekistan discussed issues of bilateral relations with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, this morning. The sides put a special focus on joint efforts of fighting against terrorism. They discussed the economic interests of the two countries as well.

The topic of cooperation within the framework of the CIS was discussed during a meeting between President Islam Karimov and the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko. The sides exchanged views on the agenda of the CIS summit.

In the afternoon the heads of 11 CIS countries held a meeting at the Belarus president's residence. The main topic of the discussions was setting up an anti-terrorist centre and a free trade zone.

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oscow will see an exhibition Wholesale Food Markets-2000 from 6 to 9 December, organized as part of the Uzbek-Russian economic cooperation programme. The present bilateral economic relations are being built on a mutually advantageous basis. Annual trade turnover between the countries is almost 1bn dollars.

At present more than 470 enterprises in Uzbekistan have Russian investment, 149 of them are Russian-Uzbek joint-ventures and 29 enterprises operate with 100 per cent Russian investment.

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