Strasbourg - The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, representing the Council of Europe, will meet his Russian counterpart, Mr Igor Ivanov, on Monday to discuss the council's decision to suspend Russia because of its Chechnya human rights record. Mr Ivanov and Mr Cowen, who chairs the ministerial council, will meet in Luxembourg to discuss the decision by the council's parliamentary assembly to suspend the Russian delegation's voting rights.
In a separate vote, the assembly also called on the executive to invoke procedures to suspend the Russians because of the lack of demonstrable progress on human rights in Chechnya.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Ivanov described the Strasbourg vote as a product of Cold War logic that played into the hands of international terrorists.
Diplomatic sources were sceptical whether the executive would comply with the assembly's request to suspend the Russian delegation.