US to respect any decision of Caspian nations

The United States will respect any decision made by the coastal states on the status of the Caspian, the special envoy of the US President and Secretary of State on Caspian issues Steven Mann told a news conference Tuesday.

He reiterated his country's attaching a greater importance to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Erzurum projects. The US President Bush stressed the importance of the Baku-Ceyhan during his recent visit to Moscow, he said.