BRUSSELS, Jan. 2 – Kiev and international financial institutions are finishing talks on the allocation of $308 million for the modernization of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline, Ukraine's representative to the European Union, Ambassador Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He said the deal could be signed at the beginning of this year.

He said that the process on the allocation by international financial institutions of $308 million for a pilot project on the modernization of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline significantly intensified at the end of last year.