REUTERS


President Boris Yeltsin arrived back in Moscow from the United States on Friday, saying he felt "excellent" despite unexpectedly canceling a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds during a stopover in Ireland.


Looking puffy-faced but full of bounce, Yeltsin said he had overslept on the trans-Atlantic flight and his security men had refused to let anyone wake him when his plane landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport earlier in the day. "It just happened -- what can one do?" he told reporters after landing in Moscow.


Reynolds, his wife, two ministers, scores of local officials, a huge Russian embassy presence, a planeload of Russian officials, a 100-strong guard of honor and a military band were waiting on the tarmac when Yeltsin's plane landed in Ireland, an hour behind schedule.


Irish officials said they were first told that Yeltsin, 63, was unwell. Then First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets told his hosts that Yeltsin was tired from the journey and resting.


The presidential press office in Moscow put out a statement saying Yeltsin had felt a slight indisposition attributed by his doctor to the pressures of his summit meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington. Yeltsin was having none of that.


"I am feeling excellent," he declared sheepishly. "I can tell you honestly, I just overslept. Eighteen hours in flight and I had not slept much for such a long time before that. The security service did not let in the people who were due to wake me. Of course, I will sort things out and punish them."


Yeltsin went on to characterize his summit with Clinton as "the best visit in my life as president." His talks with Clinton on Tueday and Wednesday lasted longer than scheduled.


"You see, the president of the United States for the first time opened up completely," he told reporters in Moscow. "I did the same. Eye-to-eye, we told each other everything so sincerely."


Yeltsin's non-appearance in Ireland sent rumor mills spinning worldwide. Yeltsin suffers from a bad back and often moves with a stiff gait. He is known to like a drink but has publicly denied he is a heavy drinker and there has never been any clear evidence that it has affected his health.


Yeltsin and Reynolds were to have discussed international issues and the Northern Ireland peace drive.


A battalion of 100 troops and a regimental band waited on the windswept tarmac while Russian and Irish officials mounted the aircraft steps to find out the reason for the delay.


A bouquet intended for Yeltsin's wife was sent on board the aircraft while Reynolds escorted Soskovets to the airport terminal for hastily re-arranged talks.


Another issue due to have been on the Yeltsin-Reynolds agenda was the increased use of Shannon airport as a stopover between Europe and the United States.


Flights from Moscow and elsewhere via Shannon have dropped by almost half in the past year because of a reduced number of Aeroflot flights.


At the same time, direct flights have started between Moscow and the United States.


Irish officials are keen to attract more stopover business from the former Soviet republics to justify the huge investment in modernization of Shannon.


Yeltsin flew to Shannon from Seattle, where the Russian president addressed U.S. businessmen after his summit talks in Washington with President Clinton.


At a speech to some 800 people at a Seattle hotel, he assured them that Russia had achieved political stability and urged them to invest there.


"We're no longer at war with parliament," Yeltsin said. "The overriding problem in Russia today is the problem of investment. We need to have foreign investment."


Yeltsin's seven-hour visit to Seattle followed talks with Clinton in which they agreed to speed up the reduction of their nuclear arsenals and signed a "partnership for economic progress".


But the Russian president appeared to take the accord a stage further Thursday. "Why is it believed that we are still painted red?" he asked. "Is it not time for us to have a free trade zone between Russia and America?"


He also called for the lifting of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a Cold War holdover, applied originally in the 1970s to pressurize the Soviet Union to lift restrictions on Jewish emigration, that limits trade links with the United States.


Many U.S. companies have been discouraged from investing in Russia because of chaotic changes to financial legislation and growing organized crime.


Yeltsin's first stop Thursday was at the sprawling Boeing Company plant in Everett, 56 kilometers north of Seattle, where Boeing assembles its 747, 767 and new 777 airliners. The Russian president was given a tour of the plant by Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz. The Russian airline Aeroflot took delivery of two Boeing 767s in Moscow on Friday.


Yeltsin later took a 30-minute cruise on Elliott Bay and visited the home of an American family hosting a 16-year-old Russian exchange student.





Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, his wife, two ministers, scores of local officials, a huge Russian embassy presence, a planeload of Russian officials, a 100-strong guard of honour and a military band were waiting on the tarmac.


Irish officials said they were first told that Yeltsin, 63, was unwell. Then First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets told his hosts that Yeltsin was tired from the journey and resting.


The presidential press office in Moscow put out a statement saying Yeltsin had felt a slight indisposition attributed by his doctor to the pressures of his summit meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington.Yeltsin was having none of that.


"I am feeling excellent," he declared sheepishly. "I can tell you honestly, I just overslept. Eighteen hours in flight and I had not slept much for such a long time before that. The security service did not let in the people who were due to wake me. Of course, I will sort things out and punish them."