Yukos's announcement earlier this week that it would cut100,000 barrels per day of crude supplies to China'sNational Petroleum Corp. alarmed China, which has sharplyincreased its oil imports from Russia as it tries to meetthe needs of its surging economy. Oil imports from Russia jumped 73 percent last year to36.7 million barrels, according to Chinese state media. Incomments to the ITAR-Tass news agency, Wen said China couldincrease Russian oil imports to up to 15 million tons (105million barrels) by 2006. "We are stressing the sphere of security and economiccooperation," Wen was quoted as saying earlier Friday byITAR-Tass, following a meeting with the speaker of Russia'slower house of parliament. Beijing has been lobbying Moscow to build a US$2.5 billionpipeline to ship Siberian oil to China. A competingproposal has been pushed by Japan, which considers apipeline to Russia's Pacific port of Nakhodka moreadvantageous for its energy demands. Russia also wants Beijing's backing in its efforts to jointhe World Trade Organization. Russia first applied to joinin 1993, but only started making major efforts to fulfillmembership conditions when Putin came to power in 1999. Russia hopes to complete all bilateral negotiations withWTO members by the end of this year and begin the formalprocess of accession into the world's biggest trading clubin 2005. Russia and China have strengthened economic and strategicties considerably in recent years as China's economycontinues to surge. China is a top buyer of Russianweaponry, according to trade media reports. In a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao last year,Putin said relations between Russia and China "had reachedtheir highest level ever."--SPA1417 Local Time 1117 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/204568