LUHANSK, January 28. /TASS/. Leaders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR, respectively) have agreed to expand their delegations to the Contact Group on Ukraine and conduct talks only with an envoy of the Ukrainian president, Alexey Karyakin, speaker of the LPR People’s Council (parliament), said on Wednesday.

He said the decision to this effect was made at a meeting between the two republics’ leaders.

"It was a brief meeting. The two leaders agreed to expand the DPR and LPR delegations. Ukraine is to be represented by a presidential envoy. There will be no meetings with any other persons. [Leonid] Kuchma is not a presidential envoy," Karyakin said, adding that these steps had been taken to make the talks more efficient.