Ukraine's prime minister on Wednesday rejected a Russian proposal to sell Ukraine gas at a discount, insisting that the contractual price be lowered, dpa reported. Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a cabinet meeting in Kiev that Moscow's offer of a 100-dollar discount on its price of 485 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres of gas was a trap, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported. "Our position remains the same: Rewrite the contract and establish market price for gas," Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying. The prime minister was speaking as another round of EU-mediated gas talks between Russia and Ukraine got under way in Brussels after the Russian energy giant Gazprom said Wednesday that it had extended into next week its payment deadline for Ukraine. Russia had insisted that cash-strapped Ukraine pay about 2 billion dollars by Tuesday this week to settle its gas arrears, but Ukraine now has until 0800 GMT on Monday to pay, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in Brussels.
