Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan decided Saturday to create a single economic space by 2012 after they set up a customs union next year.

The countries have until July 1, 2011, to prepare documentation for the project, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told Vesti television. The single economic space is expected to come into effect Jan. 1, 2012, he said. He spoke from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where President Dmitry Medvedev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting.

(Bloomberg)