MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax) - Moscow welcomes the European Commission's recommendations to the Council of the European Union on concluding an agreement with Russia on simplifying short-term visa procedures and hopes that talks on this problem will begin soon, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said. Yakovenko described as very important a decision made at the Russia-EU summit in St. Petersburg on both sides considering terms and conditions for lifting all visa regulations in the future and working toward fuller use of the existing chances for attaining flexibility within the Schengen visa accords. Proceeding from this decision, Russia and the European commission held two rounds of consultations in the fall of 2003 and February this year to discuss the visa issue, including the possibility of concluding an agreement on simplifying travel, he said. by the European Commission was an expected step, which we welcome. We hope that the EU Council will not take long to Yakovenko said the future agreement would concern the issuing of multiple-entry visas valid for several years to "Therefore, the sending of recommendations to the EU Council exercise its mandate on holding talks with Russia," he said. certain categories of travelers, including business people, and also simplifying visa procedures or making visas free of charge for students, researchers, culture, education and sports figures and others, he said. The Russian diplomat stressed that this agreement with the European Union "should be more far-reaching than the bilateral agreements that have already been concluded or are soon to be concluded with individual EU member-states," because "other options will not satisfy us." Moreover, "this agreement should only become the first step towards our ultimate goal - a transition to visa-free travel," Yakovenko said. Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously coordinate a kind of roadmap towards this goal, which should stipulate steps that Russia and the EU would need to take to move towards this goal and their deadlines, he said.