March 9, 2000 2:51 PM Reuters

MINSK, March 9 (Reuters) - Belarus, shrugging off Russian opposition, said on Thursday they would be glad if former world junior champion Julia Soldatova represented them at this month's world figure skating championships in Nice.

Earlier this week the Russian Figure Skating Federation (RFSF) accused 18-year-old Soldatova and her coach Yelena Chaikovskaya of negotiating with Minsk behind their backs.

According to Russian media, Soldatova, who won the world junior title in 1997, was upset when she was overlooked for the Russian team in Nice.

Minsk reacted calmly to the storm in Moscow.

"We did not lure the Russian figure skater at all," Ivan Pashkevich, deputy head of the presidential administration, told Reuters.

"But if she wants to skate for Belarus, she should be praised and honoured for this...In the long run, inviting sports stars is usual practice in the world."

RFSF President Valentin Piseyev said this week Soldatova could not represent Belarus because she had competed for Russia at Grand Prix events this season.

Soldatova was runner-up behind Russia's Irina Slutskaya at the St Petersburg Grand Prix last November and finished fourth at the Grand Prix finals in Lyon in January.

Pashkevich said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, an enthusiastic supporter of winter sports, met Soldatova and Chaikovskaya last month and offered to rent local ice rinks to Russian hockey players and figure skaters.

Pashkevich said Lukashenko, who heads the Belarus National Olympic Committee, had told Chaikovskaya he wanted to revive Belarussian figure skating.

"For instance, Chaikovskaya might train her pupils at an ice palace in Vitebsk (near the Russian border), while ours could watch and learn," Pashkevich said.

"While Belarus is among the 10 strongest countries in the world in hockey, we are useless in figure skating. Of course we would like to create a Chaikovskaya figure skating school in Belarus."

Lukashenko has promised to provide free housing for Belarus athletes who win Olympic or world titles.

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