The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan approved at their summit on Monday Russian Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko as head of the Eurasian Economic Commission, a new supranational body to integrate the three former Soviet republics within a common economic space.

"I want to congratulate Khristenko as chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the commission's session. Khristenko will leave his current office after the appointment.

In November, the Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh presidents signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration, a roadmap of integration processes aimed at creating the Eurasian Economic Union, which will be based on the Customs Union and common economic space among the three countries.

Medvedev and his Belarusian and Kazakh counterparts Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev also approved at their summit on Monday decisions on enforcing agreements from next year on the free movement of goods, capital and workforce within the common economic space between the three former Soviet republics and regulating the work of the Eurasian Economic Commission.