TOKYO, Aug. 1 Kyodo - Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend an upcoming world summit on sustainable development in South Africa, government sources said Thursday.

The absence of Putin will deal a further blow to the U.N. meeting which U.S. President George W. Bush will also reportedly skip.

The sources said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is scheduled to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development which will be held in Johannesburg from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is also likely to be absent from the meeting, the sources said.

According to a list of attendees' titles released Thursday by the secretariat of the summit, 58 heads of state and 40 prime ministers will attend the roundtable conference among world leaders.

Among major countries, Japan, Britain, Germany, Canada, Russia, China and Italy are expected to send prime ministers while the United States and India will dispatch cabinet ministers.

The list was compiled on July 24 and is still tentative, the secretariat said.

According to the Environment Ministry, leaders from 102 countries took part in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro.