KIEV, July 21 – The talks on the creation of a free-trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union should be based on the rules of the World Trade Organization, officials from the sides in the talks said at a meeting in Brussels on July 17, according to a posting on the official Web site of the Ukrainian state.

KIEV, July 18 – France's Rasec Group, one of Europe's largest trade and office equipment producers, will launch its own production operation at the premises of the bankrupt Cherkasy Khimvolokno, according to the Cherkasy regional state administration.

KIEV, July 21 – Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry has proposed to allocate a UAH818 million loan to the Agrarian Fund to buy grain from the new harvest to form the state foodstuffs reserve.

KIEV, July 21 – The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, could give a $45 million credit to Delta-Wilmar CIS to expand its production facilities and develop infrastructure at a palm oil refinery at the Yuzhny port in Odesa, IFC reported on Friday.

KIEV, July 21 – Representatives of Ukraine and the European Commission are reportedly trying to iron out a dispute involving bilateral trade.

On July 17, the deputy head of the presidential secretariat of Ukraine, Andriy Honcharuk, held a working meeting with the director of Trade Defense Instruments Directorate at the European Commission, Stefaan Depypere, where problematic issues in the trade the defense instruments sphere were discussed, the presidential press service reported.

KIEV, July 20 - The Image Holding company, a large Ukrainian alcohol producer (maker of the Khortysia vodka brand), plans by 2010 to launch a new distillery with a capacity of 1 million decaliters per month in Russia.

KIEV, July 20 - The union of milk factories of Ukraine has estimated Ukraine's losses in 2006 from Russia's ban on Ukrainian dairy products since January 2006 at over $300 million, the president of the union, Lidia Karpenko said at the Ukrainian-German milk forum in Kiev on Thursday.

KIEV, July 20 - A central nuclear waste storage facility in Ukraine for three out of four of the country's nuclear power plants is being built ahead of schedule, according to Andriy Derkach, president of the national nuclear generating company EnergoAtom.

KIEV, July 20 - The National Nuclear Generating Company EnergoAtom, the operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, in January through June increased electricity generation and sales compared to the same period in 2006, and cut operating violations at the country's nuclear power plants.

WARSAW, July 20 - Crude oil from the Caspian Sea region may reach European suppliers before the end of this year, using the Odessa-Brody pipeline and the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline going through Slovakia, Ukrainian Cabinet official Oleksandr Todiychuk said, according to The Wall Street Journal Polska.