Germany's Chancellor Schroeder visits Moscow

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, who's on a private visit to Moscow, has held informal talks with President Putin.

He's been invited to Russia by Mr Putin to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas on Sunday.

However, correspondents say the visit is likely to be overshadowed by the question of Russian debt repayments.

They say the two men will have plenty of time to discuss Russia's announcement on Friday that it's to delay the first of its scheduled payments this year to the Paris Club of industrial nations.

It owes nearly fifty billion dollars, forty per cent of it to German banks.

One report says Germany has proposed converting all or part of the debt into shares in Russian companies.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service