Moscow  - Two weeks ahead of critical polls in Moldova, Moscow invited the country's outgoing president and his separatist rival for what seemed less a chat in the principle's office than a candy-for-promises routine.

It was no mean feat uniting the two, who have met just once in almost eight years, to discuss their decades-long dispute.

Russia pulled all its weight to orchestrate the meeting intent on restore its image abroad as an honest broker in the post-Soviet space after its military push into Georgia in August, analysts said.

Moscow/Tolyatti, Russia - Russia will allocate over 20 billion rubles (589 million dollars) to support the country's largest automaker AvtoVAZ, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday.

He said the funds should allow the company to attract another 90 billion rubles (6.64 billion dollars).

Putin was shown on state television dressed casually in a black sweater and suit addressing workers at AvtoVAZ's Volga river manufacturing base in Tolyatti, about 750 kilometres east of Moscow.

Vienna  - Austria's leading oil and gas group OMV AG announced Monday it has ended its involvement with Hungarian counterpart MOL plc by selling its 21.2-per-cent stake to the Russian company Surgutneftegas OJSC.

The shares were sold for 1.4 billion euros (1.86 billion dollars), OMV said in a statement, calling the deal a "logical step" after the company ended its unsuccessful bid to take over MOL last August.

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia  - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen narrowly missed out on a 90th World Cup win Saturday when he was pipped to victory by fellow Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen in a 12.5-kilometre pursuit race in Khanty-Mansiysk.

In the women's 10km race, six-time world champion Magdalena Neuner of Germany took the honours, leaving the battle for the overall World Cup to be decided between Kati Wilhelm of Germany and Sweden's Helena Jonsson in Sunday's mass start event.

Washington - A Soyuz capsule with a joint US-Russian crew and a millionaire space tourist successfully docked Saturday with the International Space Station (ISS), US officials reported.

The US space agency NASA said the docking, coming two days after the Soyuz was launched from the Baikonur centre, went without a hitch and was completed at 1305 GMT, nine minutes earlier than scheduled.

The Soyuz brought Russian cosmonaut Gennadi Padalka and his US colleague Michael Barratt - who will stay on the ISS until next October - as well as US millionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi.

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen narrowly missed out on a 90th World Cup win Saturday when he was pipped to victory by fellow Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen in a 12.5-kilometre pursuit race in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Svendsen missed two targets in the shooting range on his way to victory in a time of 33 minutes 3.3 seconds, finishing just 0.1 seconds ahead of Bjoerndalen, who also missed two targets.