国内英语新闻:China hopes for narrowing difference on price of gas imported from Russia

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- China Thursday expressed the hope that the pricing difference on natural gas imported from Russia would be narrowed through joint efforts from both sides.

Gu Jun, deputy director-general of the National Energy Administration's international department, made the remarks at a news briefing on Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming visit to Russia and Tajikistan.

Though companies from both sides had made many efforts in this regard, a certain difference still existed in the pricing of natural gas imported from Russia, Gu said, calling for additional sincerity to be demonstrated on the pricing talks by the two sides.

Talks on this issue will be also a part of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan's upcoming visit to Russia, she said.

In 2009, Russia inked a framework agreement with China on annually supplying at most 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China, but they still did not reach an agreement on the supplying price.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will pay official visits to Russia and Tajikistan from Nov. 22 to 25 at the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Tajikistan Prime Minister Akil Akilov.

During the visits, Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the 15th Chinese-Russian prime ministers meeting and the ninth prime ministers meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.