ST PETERSBURG, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russia-Belarus Union State's unified external border program has been extended until 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after a session of the Union State's Supreme Council.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the border would soon be called locked. "Soon we will be able to report to our nations that the border is 100% locked, as it was in Soviet times," Lukashenko told a news conference.

The Belarusian leader said he and Putin had noted huge work done to develop the border.