Belarus is to bar flights by US and Canadian airlines over its territory in response to both countries' ban on the Belarussian prime minister's flight to Cuba last month, Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Minsk on Thursday.

The move was suggested by President Alexander Lukashenko this week, who has also been banned from entering the United States and European Union following his re-election.

"Belarus, in its response, follows the principles of symmetry," Andrei Popov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying while commenting on Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko's Tuesday address to the nation and parliament.

"The Belarussian aviation authorities are prepared to limit US and Canadian planes' transit flights over Belarus, as the government demands," the Belarussian State Aviation Committee said earlier.

Lukashenko said in his annual message to parliament on Tuesday "who has given anybody the right to restrict your travel or the travel of the prime minister, who had nothing to do with presidential elections at all?"

"I issued an instruction to the government ... let them fly over the Baltic states and Ukraine but the main route must be blocked. We may lose something, but we should show them our dignity," he said.

The Aviation Committee estimated that the ensuing loss would be no more than US$200,000 annually, which is the duty charged to US and Canadian airlines for the transit.

Meanwhile, a Belarussian air services market expert said the response would not threaten the state.
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"Belarussian planes practically don't fly over the U.S and Canada. The other countries would be happy to benefit from Belarussian planes' flights and would not respond overly emotionally to the decision to close Belarussian skies to the US and Canada," the expert said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)