Belarus is ready to bring relations with the United States back to normal, the Belarussian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"Belarus is ready to establish normal, pragmatic and mutually advantageous relations with the United States as much as our US counterparts want," the head of the ministry's information department, Andrei Popov, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

"There are enough proposals and areas for cooperation -- the war on terrorism, the fight against drugs and human trafficking and other challenges that are high on the international agenda for sustaining peace and stability," he said.

Belarus has repeatedly announced its readiness to change the character and the content of the dialogue with the US "Now the ball is on its half of the field," Popov said.

"We hope that our US counterparts will assess domestic political processes in Belarus with respect to the Belarussian people's opinion," he said.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said last month his country stands ready to develop relations with the United States as equal partners.

The United States is the biggest source of foreign investment in Belarus. Trade with the United States accounts for about 3 percent of Belarus' foreign trade.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2006)