Ukraine resumes debt talks with gas trader

MOSCOW, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Trader RosUkrEnergo, which sells Russian and Central Asian gas to Ukraine, said on Monday it had resumed negotiations with Kiev over debt arrears and expressed hope that talks would produce results this week.

The firm said on Friday that talks had stalled, raising fears of another gas row between Moscow and Kiev. Previous disputes led to disruptions in Russian gas supplies to Europe as most of Russian exports to the West passes through Ukraine.

"The talks are proceeding. A working group has been created. It is possible that we will see the first results of the talks by Wednesday," Vitaly Kisel, a RosUkrEnergo spokesman, told Reuters.

RosUkrEnergo, half-owned by Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM), said last week it failed to agree with Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz to redeem debts of about $600 million to the trader for gas supplies in January and last year.

Naftogaz confirmed that talks were proceeding.

Ukraine, which agreed to buy Russian and Central Asian gas through RosUkrEnergo after a price row with Russia in early 2006, is to pay $179.50 per 1,000 cubic metres this year. That is 46 percent more than in 2007 but still below European averages of $350.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who took office in December at the head of a pro-Western "orange" government, has said she wants to re-examine gas deals with Moscow. She specifically wants higher fees for Russian gas transit to Europe, which are to rise by only six percent this year.

President Viktor Yushchenko has rejected the idea of raising transit fees.

Tymoshenko, who had difficult relations with Moscow during her first term as prime minister in 2005, questions the role of RosUkrEnergo in gas trade with Russia, saying intermediaries push up prices.

Naftogaz said at the weekend that the scheme of gas supplies to Ukraine has been made more complicated last year, which "may fully destabilise the situation in Ukraine's gas market and disturb stable transit of Russian gas to Europe".

Tymoshenko is making her first trip abroad as premier on Monday to Brussels and is expected to visit Moscow next month to hold talks with Gazprom. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and by Yuri Kulikov in Kiev, writing by Tanya Mosolova; editing by James Jukwey)