Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych met his Russian counterpart on Friday and was set to meet the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom to negotiate the price of gas imports to his country for the last quarter of this year.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying after the talks that both sides had agreed on the balance of gas supplies and that the last details of the gas price settlement for the fourth quarter was "in the final stages."

Ukraine pays 95 U.S. dollars for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas to Gazprom, which supplies Ukraine with a mix of gas from Russia and Central Asian countries under a deal reached at the beginning of this year. The deal nearly doubled the price from last year for Ukraine.

However, the pricing issue re-emerged after Turkmenistan hiked the price of gas it sells to Gazprom from 65 dollars to 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

"A price of 95 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters to the end of 2006 is a matter of principle for us... Possibly we will increase the period on which we agree to five years, as price stability is important for us," Yanukovych said after the meeting, quoted by Interfax.

"We are confident that we will be able to supply the necessary amount of gas to the Ukrainian public," he said.

Source: Xinhua