"Our task is to develop full-fledged commerce in land within the shortest time possible and raise the liquidity of agricultural lands," Mr Zubkov said today as he opened a meeting on improvements in legislation concerned with land relations.

He noted that some steps had already been made in that direction. In particular, the period in which lease contracts for land shares could be rescheduled was extended for two years; the state duty for registration of the rights in farm land plots was reduced to 100 roubles from 500 roubles for individuals and 7,500 roubles for corporations; and amendments were drafted for legislation on rural land mortgages.

At the same time, Mr Zubkov acknowledged that "farm land owners are not yet sufficiently active". According to his figures, out of 12 million shareholders, only 400,000 claimed land ownership rights.

Among the main problems preventing the emergence of real land owners, he mentioned the virtual nature of share property, as well as the high cost and the considerable length of time it takes to parcel out land plots from common share property. Before these issues are solved, the First Deputy Prime Minister believes, it is necessary to determine exactly how many people own shared property, to offer a clear-cut procedure for separating unclaimed shares, to adopt rules for parcelling out land plots from common share property, and to use the latest informational and digital technologies (orthophotomaps and space surveys) for this purpose.

"Our task is to disseminate in the regions the experience of comprehensive pilot land surveying projects financed out of all budgets, when owners are left only with the job of distributing plots of land among themselves and registering them," the First Deputy Prime Minister said. These measures, Mr Zubkov said, will make decision-making on land by state and municipal bodies transparent and documentation simpler.

The First Deputy Prime Minister drew attention to the need to make the use of land more effective. To address this problem, he said, it is necessary to establish a legal framework for land redistribution, to specify the concept of particularly productive lands, to make use of fertile lands that were abandoned or purchased for other purposes, and to define more accurately the purpose of available agricultural lands. "We will discuss these things very shortly at special meetings. Employment, manufacture of domestic goods and social stability all directly depend on land issues. Our goal is an effective land owner," the First Deputy Prime Minister said.