RIA Novosti citing Mr Duisenbai Turganov Kazakhstan's Industry and Technologies Minister as saying that a lack of rail cargo cars is holding up Kazakhstan coal supplies to Russia and threatening the operation of the countries' electrical power systems.

He said that "As of today, the delay to the schedule amounts to about 600,000 tons. We lack 2,000 to 2,500 rail cars every day.”

He added that this is why Kazakh coal mines' contract obligations to Russian power plants are not met. This in turn may affect the stability of the parallel work of Russia's and Kazakhstan's energy systems."

Mr Askar Mamin head of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Railway Company acknowledged the problem but promised to solve it within 10 days.

(Sourced from RIA Novosti)