Moscow, 21 February: The Russian Emergencies Ministry's main directorate for Moscow has withdrawn its request for a court to suspend work at the office of the Russian Union of Journalists for 90 days in connection with breaches of fire safety at the office's premises.

Anna Usacheva, head of the Moscow city court's press service, told Interfax that Moscow's Khamovnicheskiy court had returned the case to the directorate at the request of the petitioners, who want to carry out additional checks.

"The Russian Emergencies Ministry's directorate for Moscow's central administrative district todayasked Moscow's Khamovnicheskiy court to return this material for additional checks into circumstances that haverecently arisen," Usacheva said.

According to her, "the judge at the Khamovnicheskiy court issued a ruling returning this material".

Earlier, the court's press secretary had announced that the material on administrative offences mentioned 14breaches of fire safety committed by the union in its use of the building, on the basis of which the petitioner wasasking for its activities to be suspended for 90 days.

Earlier, the Emergencies Ministry's main directorate for Moscow asked the capital's Khamovnicheskiy courtto suspend work at the Russian Union of Journalists' office for 90 days.

Among the breaches cited in the petition was that not all the organization's premises were equipped with firealarm systems, and also that the fire exits could not freely be opened.

Moreover, the document points out that more than 40 per cent of the Russian Union of Journalists' premises lack automatic fire alarm systems.