MOSCOW, July 18 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss trade and economic relations, Putin’s spokesman reported.

“Putin and Tymoshenko discussed various aspects of bilateral trade and economic cooperation,” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman, said, according to Itar-Tass, the state-owned news agency.

The phone call comes three weeks after the two had met in Moscow and had a lengthy one-on-one meeting discussing a number of issues.