Talks between Moscow and Washington on Russia"s...
"The main disagreements existing with the United States remain at the same level," Igor Shuvalov said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
He said the disagreements have remained unresolved at the expert level and that talks need to go to a higher level.
"They (experts) have exhausted all their resources. The talks, with a focus on finding compromises, should be raised to the level of the political leadership," he said.
Shuvalov said he had discussed Russia"s readiness to take more effective steps toward the resolution of existing disagreements with the U.S. during a visit to Washington in September 2009. However, he said, the U.S. partners have so far not met Russia"s proposals.
Russia has been in negotiations to enter the WTO for over 16 years, and is the only major world economy not to have joined. Several former Soviet countries, and communist states such as China and Cuba, are already members.