The agenda for the National Assembly's fall session includes approval of the 1998 budget and up to 70 draft laws, speaker Babken Araktsyan told deputies on 8 September. He noted that the most important of those bills deal with the economy and the reform of the legal system. Meeting with representatives of the various parliamentary factions on 7 September, Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan said he hoped new legislation introducing a more equitable tax system will be enacted before the end of the year. He also called for a new privatization strategy, Interfax reported. In 1995 and 1996, the death toll among prison inmates was 56 and 60, respectively.
Pneumonia is the most common cause of death.
Some 400 convicts in Armenia are currently suffering from, and six have already died of, that disease so far this year. The total prison population in Armenia is estimated at between 5,000 and 6,000. Ismail Cem met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Hasan Hasanov, parliamentary speaker Murtaz Alesqerov, and with President Heidar Aliev in Baku on 8 September, Russian and Azerbaijani agencies reported. Aliev noted that Turkish intelligence must have been aware of those shipments. He called on Ankara to play a more active role within the OSCE's Minsk Group, which is mediating a settlement of the Karabakh conflict.