KIEV, April 6 - Altimo, a Russian telecommunications group, has agreed to start negotiations with Telenor of Norway that may lead to a merger of Ukraine??™s No. 1 and Russia??™s No. 2 cell phone companies, a newswire reported.

The start of the talks suggests Altimo has also accepted Telenor??™s idea that either Altimo or Telenor, but not both, will be a stakeholder in the merged business.