Brussels, 08/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - It is not the date but the terms of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation that are important, Russian Trade Minister German Gref said after a further session of talks - the fourth at political level and the tenth at technical level - in Brussels on Tuesday. The Russian official spoke of tangible progress made in what he last week called the most difficult chapter in the accession process (see EUROPE of 4 October, p.11). He pointed out to the Itar-press agency that, out of the 34 problems that could appear impossible to resolve at the beginning, there are now only four to be resolved, with a possible compromise on three of them (although he did not say which). On the European side, there is talk of a session that is "quite open and constructive" but also of progress limited to banking services, including financial services, and insurance as, for the remainder, "this depends very much on the Russians", mainly in three other key sectors: - energy: where they have problems in taking commitments on the commercial aspects of market opening (double pricing and transit); - telecommunications, a sector in which they have imposed a monopoly (Rostelekom) which did not exist before; - and air transport, with "exorbitant" taxes mainly imposed for flying over Siberia toward Asia, a question that could be referred to the multilateral level if no bilateral solution is found. "The ball is in the Russian court", it is said in Brussels. Mr Gref considers for his part that it is technically possible to conclude negotiations next year but not to enter the WTO.