The delegation from the Russian central bank and the finance ministry is refusing to take part in a Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Washington later this week, demanding that Russia be treated on an equal basis with the G7 countries. "We're not satisfied with the conditions of that meeting," the central bank chief Mr Sergei Dubninin said yesterday as quoted by his press department. The meeting, planned on the sidelines of IMF and World Bank meetings on April 15th to 17th, is to be held on the G7 + 1 formula, meaning Russia joining the G7 countries. But Russian officials want the term "G8" to be used officially. The G7 has included the Russians in its work the last few years, long using the 7 + 1 formula, which made it possible to keep Russian out of certain economic discussions.

Mr Dubninin said that "We informed the G7 members of our position. Since we got the response, we decided not to participate in that meeting". However, the Russian delegation will take part in the meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs of 22 industrial and developing countries slated for the same dates, to deal particularly with developing mechanisms for preventing financial crises.