A round-table discussion on the vexed question of land reform has concluded in the Kremlin under the chairmanship of President Boris Yeltsin. The round-table meeting was attended by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, the two deputy prime ministers and leaders of the main political parties in Russia. LIZ REMBOWSKA reports from Moscow:

Regulation of the land market has been the subject of debate in Russia for centuries. The lower house of parliament has passed a land law, but President Yeltsin has so far refused to sign it, and at the round-table conference, he explained why.

As it stood, he said, the act failed to include a mechanism to register land ownership. It failed to differentiate between urban and farmlands, and it also failed to cover the question of land being passed on or mortgaged.

Mr Yeltsin expressed the hope that the round-table would make some headway on the question, noting that since land ownership was already a fact of life, it was urgent that a law be introduced to regulate the market, or it risked becoming criminalised.

The round-table conference agreed that a committee be set up under the chairmanship of the prime minister which would work on the legislation.