The head of Ukraine's state-run natural gas company said on Friday after talks with Turkmenistan's leadership that the two sides had resolved a conflict over Ukraine's debts to the energy-rich Central Asian nation. Oleksiy Ivchenko, the chairman of the state Naftogaz-Ukraine company, also announced that Ukraine and Turkmenistan had fixed a new price for gas deliveries starting from July 1 for the rest of 2005 and 2006. Ukraine depends on Turkmenistan for nearly half of its gas consumption, according to AP. He said that Ukraine would settle its debts for Turkmen gas supplies, which Turkmenistan puts at more than US$560 million (¤464 million), by the end of the year. And the Ukrainian official said that the Ukraine would pay a lower price of US$44 (¤36.5) per 1,000 cubic meters (35,310 cubic feet) of gas _ in return for switching to an all-cash basis rather than paying half in goods as before. In a brief statement on Friday, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine had agreed to settle its debts by providing goods valued according to world prices.
