A law that would lift Cold War travel restrictions affecting all foreign correspondents in Russia has been drafted by acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the head of the Foreign Correspondents Association in Moscow said Thursday.


Marco Politi, president of the association, said he had been advised that "Gaidar has written a bill that will finally grant freedom of movement to foreign journalists in Russia except at prohibited sites, such as military sites".


Travel restrictions were imposed during the Cold War when Moscow required Western correspondents to notify the Soviet Foreign Ministry in advance of travel beyond a 40-kilometer radius from the center of Moscow.


Most Western countries adopted similar restrictions for Soviet correspondents.


"The Foreign Correspondents Association always fought for these travel restrictions to be lifted", Politi said.


The United States and Russia exchanged diplomatic notes Sept. 22 that lifted longstanding reciprocal travel restrictions for American and Russian journalists.


On Thursday, Leonid Parkhomenko of the Foreign Ministry press department confirmed that the exchange of diplomatic notes was all that was necessary to disband the previous rules in those two countries.


But other foreign journalists, such as the British, are still bound by reciprocal rules of the old era. Parkhomenko said that negotiations have begun between Britain and Russia, and that top-level discussions were expected when Yeltsin visits London later this fall.


Parkhomenko said that changing the old rules concerning travel restrictions would be handled between the foreign ministries of countries that have similar bilateral agreements. He said he knew nothing about Gaidar's draft,