"We are ready for negotiations," Putin told a press conference after meeting with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, according to Itar-Tass.

"In terms of redeeming debts of the poorest countries, Russia is number three in the world after France and Japan, and if you take the size of the Gross Domestic Product, we're number one," Putin was quoted as saying.

"That is why we don't object to a write-off," he noted.

He said that there were special international procedures, developed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that envisioned negotiations of write-off proposals.

"The IBRD believes Iraq has the same level of development as Algeria, and this is the basic position from which the write-off talks may begin," the president said, adding that the write-off proposal is "understandable and quite rightful."

Putin's remarks came a day after US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested that Russia, France and Germany consider writing off their debts to postwar Iraq to help rebuild the battered economy.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2003)