The Russian President expressed his condolences following the natural disasters in China, solidarity with the Chinese people and readiness to provide assistance, if necessary.

The President of China said he was touched and very grateful for this expression of friendly support. In turn, he said Chinese people followed the situation with the wildfires in the Russian Federation with keen interest and concern and noted with satisfaction that the Russian leadership was coping successfully with these natural disasters.

Russia will lift a ban on poultry imports from 68 U.S. companies whose production processes meet Russian requirements and will leave a ban on the production of the remaining 19 that have not met the country's sanitation demands, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Oleg Aksyonov said on Monday.

U.S. poultry accounted for almost 80% of poultry imports to Russia. The U.S. import quota amounts to 600,000 tons in 2010.

On Jan. 1, 2010, Russia introduced new sanitary standards, banning the treatment of meat with chloride of a higher