Toronto, 27 June 2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Sunday for a special levy on oil companies to finance a fund to help clean up environmental disasters such as BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Medvedev, who heads the world's biggest energy producer, made a proposal for a global pollution fund at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto. He said G20 leaders had asked experts to work on the idea.

"One of the ideas, which still needs discussion, is for dues from major international companies which produce oil to be placed into a special consolidated fund or, and perhaps together with that, for the insurance of such risks paid for by those corresponding dues," Medvedev told reporters.

Russia has paid close attention to BP's reaction to the Gulf spill, the largest in U.S. history, partly because 25 percent of the British energy giant's global output comes from its Moscow-based TNK-BP joint venture.

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