"Bush legs" back to Russian market

After rounds of consultations, U.S. poultry meat will soon return to Russia under the conditions set by Moscow, a Russian daily newspaper reported on Friday.

Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko announced on June 2, 2008 that starting from Jan. 1, 2009, the content of chlorine in the solutions used for poultry carcasses should be no higher than that in the drinking water.

After one year of delay, the decree officially came into force on Jan. 1 this year, said the RBK daily. And as Russia's largest chicken meat supplier, the United States was the first to feel the blow.

Since Jan. 19, multiple rounds of consultations concerning the issue have been held between U.S. government and business delegates and relevant Russian agencies, said the paper.

According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko, the latest round of negotiations were held between the two sides in Moscow on March 3-4.

During the talks, the United States promised to export poultry meat in accordance with requirements from the Russian side, said the spokesman.

Both sides also discussed technical problems relating to poultry processing, he added.

Sergei Lisowski from the Russian Federation Council, or the upper house of the parliament, said despite the lack of chicken supply from Washington, there was no deficit on the Russian market but even a surplus instead.

Statistics showed that Russia currently holds some 240,000 tons of poultry storage.