UZBEK PRESIDENT, IN PARIS, URGES CLOSER COOPERATION.

Uzbek president Islam Karimov yesterday urged French president Jacques Chirac to encourage French companies to trade with and invest in Uzbekistan. Karimov pointed out that French companies lag way behind those of other nations doing business with Uzbekistan. Ex-president Francois Mitterrand signed a French-Uzbek cooperation agreement with Karimov in 1993 and visited Uzbekistan in 1994. Karimov is now in Paris to inaugurate a UNESCO-sponsored anniversary exhibition on Tamerlane. (Western agencies, April 22)

Havel in the Baltics.