time record price of more than 48 dollars a barrel was reached last week at the New York Mercantile Exchange. With high energy prices increasingly threatening economic growth around the world, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Yukos during a telephone conversation Monday. "I talked to him about it," Bush told reporters. "He said he recognizes that we don't need to be - he doesn't need to be causing conditions such that it hurts consuming nations. He's wise about that." Citing a Russian government official, The Financial Times reported that the tax ministry had prepared additional tax claims directly against Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' main west Siberian subsidiary. It quoted a Russian government official. --More 2249 Local Time 1949 GMT
