Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Ramirez, ladies and gentlemen.

Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with our great friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He is pinning high hopes both on your mission, and on the forthcoming meeting of the High-Level Commission in St. Petersburg.

For our part, I must say we are satisfied with how well Russian-Venezuelan relations are developing. We will diversify them, but obviously, energy is the driver of our relations. I would like to thank our Venezuelan friends for the opportunities which they have offered to our national oil consortium, which has been established specifically for the Venezuelan market. Our companies are gaining a chance to work in a number of promising directions. Our leading gas company, Gazprom, has good prospects as well.

We attach much significance to our plans to establish a joint bank, and are move towards this target. We hope that this will be a major tool in implementing important projects in Russia, Venezuela, and in third countries. We also have good prospects to develop cooperation in other industries - metallurgy, transportation, and machine building.

We continue to develop our military-technical cooperation, and are willing to review new proposals from our Venezuelan partners.

We are happy to see you. Please, send best wishes and respects to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Rafael Ramirez (as translated): Thank you. Mr Prime Minister. First of all, I would like to convey to you best regards from President Chavez. It is very good that our discussion with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin is followed by this meeting with you. I'm grateful to you for finding the time for this meeting.

As you know, we must continue moving forward and hold a session of the bilateral High-Level Commission in the near future. It will be attended by our Vice President, who is arriving in Russia on August 13.

Indeed, we have made considerable headway in the energy sphere. We have planned many meetings and consultations with companies and the consortium. I'm convinced that we will manage to create a most profitable energy alliance.

During Mr Sechin's visit to our country, we planned a new joint project. We made progress in areas such as electric and nuclear energy, food production and fisheries, to name but a few.

Vladimir Putin: Incidentally, today I signed the Government's resolution on our intergovernmental fishery agreement.

Rafael Ramirez: Yes, this is very important. Many thanks.

To sum up, we will be consolidating our cooperation in all possible aspects. We are pleased to attend this meeting in such a beautiful place as Sochi. We have flown over its territory on a helicopter, and visited Rosneft's oil refinery. We have appreciated the beautiful local sights near our working site.

Vladimir Putin: This is indeed a good refinery. They are continuously upgrading it, and it is always in good shape.

Rafael Ramirez: I was stunned by this plant and its technology, which is always a pleasant surprise with Russian companies.

Vladimir Putin: If we work in Venezuela, and carry out all of our plans, the technology and equipment we use will be even better because our companies will use the world's latest developments.

Thank you very much.