President Ts.Elbegdorj left on Sunday for the USA to participate in the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly, accompanied by a high-power team. His schedule in the USA includes chairing a round table meeting on climate change, and giving interviews to Newsweek, The Economist, Forbes, Bloomberg, the New York Times and Reuters. 

The final decision will be taken at the party plenum on Friday but former President N. Enkhbayar is predictably emerging as the most likely nominee of the MPRP to contest the parliamentary by-election from Chingeltei district. MPRP members in all the 19 sub-districts in the constituency met last Saturday to express their preference, and with 86.4 percent of the votes Enkhbayar was the clear winner. He was the first choice in 18 sub-districts while Mineral and Energy Minister D.Zorigt won in one. Together the sub-districts have 18,000 MPRP members but only around 4,500 cast their vote.

Negotiations began Thursday in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish an agreement on partnership and cooperation between Mongolia and the European Union (EU). News conference was called by heads of delegates on the matter. 

            

The Government meeting yesterday reviewed the Russian President’s visit last month. Both sides agreed to have a new 10-year cooperation agreement when the present one ends in 2010. They also agreed to reinvigorate all joint ventures by implementing new projects. For example, USD250 million will be invested in the UB Railway, cooperation in uranium, agriculture and defense will resume and Russia will release the USD300-million loan for the agricultural sector.