MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Academy of Sciences on Friday. The president held an away meeting of the presidential Council for Science, Technologies and Education at the Academy of Sciences presidium residence in Leninsky Avenue.

The meeting is devoted to the fundamental scientific research program for 2008-2012. This five-year program was drafted for the first time, a source in the Academy of Sciences told Itar-Tass on Friday.

This year the presidential Council for Science, Technologies and Education did not meet yet. Last year the council had two meetings, meanwhile, one of them was an away meeting in Zelenograd, at which the modern innovation production was discussed.

In December 2006 Putin appointed the reshuffled line-up of the presidential council. The council headed by the president consists of 33 people. Among the council’s members are Academicians Zhores Alferov, Yevgeny Velikhov and Vitaly Ginzburg, Moscow State University rector Viktor Sadovnichy, Bauman Technical University rector Igor Fedorov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations rector Anatoly Torkunov, president of the Russian Commerce and Industry Chamber and Academician Yevgeny Primakov, director of the World History Institute Academician Alexander Chubaryan.

The presidential council’s chairman has two deputies: rector of Petersburg State University Lyudmila Verbitskaya and President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academician Yuri Osipov.

The council was established at the end of 2001. The council is an advisory body under the president “created for informing the president about the state of affairs in the state scientific-technical policy, ensuring the cooperation between the president and scientific organisations and scientists and making proposals to set the priority directions of this policy.”

The presidential council should make proposals to set priority directions of the state scientific-technical policy and measures to implement this policy, draft reports to the president about the development of science and high technologies abroad, make proposals to the president to maintain the cooperation between the Academy of Sciences, specific academies and other Russian scientific organisations and foreign and international scientific organisations in order to harmonize their actions in the implementation of joint projects in science and high technologies and draft proposals to the president on the social security of scientific workers. Upon presidential instructions the council also conduct an expertise of federal draft laws and other legislative acts regarding the state scientific-technical policy.