Russia Damascus, Syria, April 4, SPA -- Damascus and Moscow will sign afinal agreement by the end of April to settle Syria'sUS$3.6 billion (¤2.8 billion) debt to Russia, Russia'sMinister of Regional Development Vladimir Yakovlev saidMonday. Yakovlev, who is heading the Russian side during athree-day Joint Syrian-Russian Committee meeting here aimedat boosting bilateral trade, said the finance ministers ofboth countries will sign the agreement in Damascus. Russia wrote off nearly three quarters of Syria's US$13billion (¤10 billion) debt during Syrian President BasharAssad's visit to Moscow on Jan. 25 for talks onstrengthening bilateral economic ties.--SPA1504 Local Time 1204 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/252042