1.   It was expected that the fleet would be divided at the end of the transitional period.

2.   On Wednesday, it passed a draft law to rescind the agreement that Yeltsin and Kuchma reached last year to divide the fleet.

3.   He said Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin will travel to Ukraine next month to sign agreements dividing the fleet and establishing its bases and financing.

4.   Meanwhile, the lower house, the State Duma, resolved unanimously that efforts to divide the fleet should be stopped.

5.   Negotiations to divide the fleet have never been known to include giving part of it to Georgia.

6.   Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin promised to visit Ukraine this month to sign an agreement on dividing the fleet.

7.   The legislation would have prevented the government from going ahead with dividing the fleet with Ukraine.

8.   An accord in principle on dividing the fleet was reached at a summit between Yeltsin and Kuchma last summer.

9.   The accord also confirmed existing plans to divide the fleet itself by half for each country.