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MOSCOW (AFP) - Two top US senators have promised that a Cold War-era trade barrier with Russia will be lifted before US presidential elections in November 2008, one of their Russian counterparts said on Tuesday.

Speaking of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment limiting trade with Russia, Russian senator Mikhail Margelov said: "My American colleagues informed us that this discriminatory amendment will be lifted before the new US presidential elections."

Margelov met with Republican Senator Trent Lott and Democratic Senator Ben Nelson in Moscow on Tuesday as part of a bilateral working group between the two legislatures.

The amendment is a key obstacle to Russia's hopes to join the World Trade Organisation -- one of President Vladimir Putin's top priorities before he stands down at the end of his second term in March 2008.

Russia has long sought cancellation of the legislation, which Congress introduced in response to Soviet restrictions on the emigration of Jews in the 1970s.

WTO rules prevent members from imposing restrictions on other members of the sort Jackson-Vanik dictates.

Russia, which is the largest world economy outside the 150-member WTO, has repeatedly missed target dates for joining the WTO as trade disputes with Georgia, the European Union, and other obstacles have arisen.