Baltic Summit to start in Riga

A two-day summit of the Council of Baltic Sea States is due to start in the Latvian capital, Riga, today.

Economic cooperation and fighting organised crime will be at the top of the agenda at the meeting, which will be attended by the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, and the Russian Prime Minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The meeting comes less than a week after Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia signed a new security charter with the United States.

The charter reaffirms the Baltic republics' aspirations to join NATO, a move still strongly opposed by Moscow.

NOTE: Council of Baltic Sea States are Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia -- the European Commission also sends a representative

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service