**US and Russian negotiators are to meet in Moscow to discuss the adoption of Russian orphans by American families, which were suspended this month.**A senior Russian official told the BBC that a draft treaty on adoptions would be given to the Americans.
It must be signed before Moscow will allow US families to adopt any more such orphans, the official said.
The tough new stance comes after a US woman sent a seven-year-old adopted orphan back to Russia unaccompanied.
He arrived at Moscow airport earlier this month after being rejected by his mother, who put him on a plane in the US.
The draft treaty would tighten up the regulations protecting Russian children.
‘Really worried’
In an interview with the BBC, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, said the government wanted clear guarantees from American authorities that orphans adopted by families in the US would be safe.
He also said the draft treaty contained clauses that would grant Russian officials the right to travel to the US to check the families.
“We are really worried about the situation and want to have very clear safety guarantees for our children,” Mr Astakhov said.
There have been a series of incidents including the murder and abandonment of Russian children taken to the US.
It is estimated that 16 Russian orphans have been killed in the US since adoptions began in the mid-1990s.
The negotiations with state department officials over the treaty could last anything up to six months, during which no adoptions by American families will be allowed.
About 3,000 Americans are reported to be trying to adopt Russian children at the moment.
For them there will now be an anxious wait for the ban to be lifted.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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