Transcript of the beginning of the talks:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Azarov, ladies and gentlemen, we are very glad to see you here today. Welcome to Moscow!

We are grateful to you for accepting our invitation. This is your first official visit as Ukrainian prime minister, and you chose to come to Moscow. This is wonderful. A good sign.

Regrettably, trade between our two countries has decreased significantly as of late, due to both the global economic and financial crisis, and, obviously, complex political events in Ukraine. But it is still possible to return to our former position and even progress beyond it.

This will be difficult but not impossible. I have in mind intensive cooperation and great interdependence in many sectors of the economy. Of course, we will have to take the necessary steps. But, let me repeat, this is all possible -- in energy, industry, aircraft manufacturing, advanced technology, space, GLONASS, which we have discussed several times, and aviation.

But you know all this quite well; you and I have known each other for a long time. I hope we will be able to build constructive trade and economic ties that will benefit our people, ties that will be based on good political relations and a desire for constructive cooperation with each other.

We are very glad about your visit. Welcome to Moscow!

Nikolai Azarov: Thank you, Mr Putin, distinguished members of the Russian Government.

The primary challenge facing our recently formed government is economic stabilisation. The domestic political conditions have been set up for this.

For the first time, we have no conflicts between parliament and the government, or between the government and the president. On the contrary, the government, the president, parliament and the coalition are all focused on political and economic stabilisation. And without a doubt, full restoration of relations with Russia is a major condition for this stabilisation.

This is not just one of our government slogans. This is our ideology, if you will. We will do everything to restore our full-scale cooperation, including in the various projects in the areas you mentioned. We have also come with a number of relatively new proposals for you and your government.

We could greatly speed up our efforts to draft these agreements and finish them in the near future. Our signing them will show that we are not just exchanging appeals, but are ready to work constructively, strengthen our cooperation step by step and, of course, find mutually advantageous, long-term solutions for the issues we face. We now have an opportunity to build these relations not for just a year, but for many years ahead. At any rate, we hope that this is possible.

I believe that we should perhaps forget what has taken place between our countries in the last five years. We should turn over a new leaf and start afresh, while taking into account the wealth of experience we have accumulated. This is my appeal, at least.

Vladimir Putin: Excellent. Let's get down to the work at hand.