Presidential aide denies Kwasniewski's alleged meeting with Gazprom head

Presidential aide Marek Siwiec announced yesterday that President Aleksander Kwasniewski did not meet on December 4 with Gazprom head Rem Vyachiryev, as Russian daily Vedomosti alleged on Monday. The newspaper claimed that during the meeting the Polish President and Vyachiryev came to a final agreement on exclusion of Ukraine in the construction of the new gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe. Gazprom confirmed the paper's information. In his statement Siwiec said that Kwasniewski and the head of Gazprom did meet on November 21 but no decision was made. "What is more, the decision in this case does not lay within the President's competences," he added. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A2) P.J.