Sino-Russian deal

Moscow (AFP) - Russia and China have agreed to end their nuclear standoff, settle a long-running border quarrel and expand bilateral trade. But the weekend's summit between presidents Jiang Zemin and Boris Yeltsin failed to touch on China's record of human rights violations and its refusal to stop nuclear bomb tests.

The summit reinforced a recent shift towards rapidly improving relations. But both sides were careful to point out the limits of their new friendship, stressing that they were not entering a formal union and would not join forces against a third country.