UDPATE 1-Russian gas price for Ukraine may double from 2009

(Adds analysts, details)

MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) - Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom will most likely more than double gas prices for Ukraine from 2009 as it pays more for gas imports from Central Asia, chief executive Alexei Miller said on Friday.

Miller told a news conference prices would most likely rise above $400 per 1,000 cubic metres (tcm) from $179.5 this year.

Gazprom supplies Europe with a quarter of its gas needs, mainly via Ukraine, and previous pricing disputes with Kiev led to serious disruptions in supplies to both Ukraine and Europe.

"Our understand is as of Jan. 1 2009, gas supplies to Ukraine will work on market principles," Miller said.

"If the negotiations with Central Asian states will be concluded on the bases of central European prices, then the price of gas for Ukraine at the border with Russia will apparently be more than $400," he said.

Some analysts perceived Miller's statement could be just the beginning of the annual price bargaining between the two neighbours, ahead of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's visit to Moscow on Saturday.

"One of the characteristics of Russian-Ukrainian gas relations in recent years is the annual haggling over price," said Geoffrey Smith of Renaissance Capital. "It's best to see this as an opening gambit in a negotiating process."

Gazprom has been steeply raising prices to Ukraine with the aim of bringing them up to market levels, after decades of subsidised supplies under the Soviet Union. Ukraine was buying gas at just $50 per tcm in 2005.

The price hikes led to Ukraine's trade balance for goods falling into deficit in 2005 and the current account balance to turn red the following year.

The Ukrainian government however has kept household prices largely unchanged, which has shielded the population at large, but has severely damaged the finances of state energy firm Naftogaz.

"I think the economy as a whole can't absorb these prices," said KBC Securities analyst Zsolt Papp. "Certain sectors could absorb it -- heavy industries do not seem too reliant on gas, they are probably in a position to absorb it."

"But in terms of the current account, import bills, inflation -- it has to be passed on at some point and the answer is no (they can't absorb the price)." (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in Moscow and Sabina Zawadzki in Kiev; editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)