16:18 Belarus to build more palaces for ice hockey

Belarus will continue building ice hockey arenas across the countries in the cities with the population of 100,000 residents, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenka said on Monday, according to official sources.

Presently, there are 10 palaces already operational in this country.

None of them is maintained by the government; they are all self-sustainable, according to Lukashenka. He said the Belarusian government is spending huge money to promote sports. Around Br 60 billion was allocated in 2006 only for the promotion of ice hockey.

At the same time, he said he waited for better performance of the Belarusian players at international championships. The team should boost up morale, he said.