31.   His first big challenge is an EU summit mid-June to draw up a new union treaty.

32.   If Labor wins, Blair will be prime minister and represent Britain at June negotiations in The Netherlands over a new union treaty.

33.   In Moscow, the Russian media and liberal politicians assailed the union treaty Tuesday as potentially harmful to Russia.

34.   It took months of wrangling before Russia and Belarus were able to work out all the details of their union treaty.

35.   Lukashenko gradually moved to restore old Soviet symbols, signed a union treaty with Russia and promised his people not to stop at a political and economic merger.

36.   Lukashenko is a big supporter of the union treaty, and wants to unite his country with Russia.

37.   Lukashenko, who has sought closer political ties with Russia and signed a union treaty with Moscow earlier this year, has complained about unflattering coverage by Russian reporters.

38.   Lukashenko and Yeltsin signed a union treaty in May, calling for closer economic, political and military ties between their countries.

39.   Moscow has signed a union treaty with Belarus, and Russian leaders appear reluctant to enter into an open confrontation with Lukashenko.

40.   On Wednesday, Yeltsin and Lukashenko signed the union treaty and initialed a more wide-ranging charter that will then be submitted for broad public discussion in coming weeks.