KIEV, March 26 – Newly appointed Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko on Monday sought to ease trade tensions with Moscow, and said that Ukraine may benefit from Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization later this year.

TOKYO, March 26 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has called on Japanese businessmen to invest in a number of Ukrainian industries, including in the agricultural and nuclear energy sectors.

Speaking at a Japanese business forum in Tokyo on Thursday, she recalled that "Ukraine has a third of the world's black soils."

MOSCOW, March 26 – Russia’s Gazprom slammed Ukraine's planned modernization of the country's gas transit system with financial support from the European Union, saying it "may have unpredictable consequences for the entire Eurasian space."

KIEV, March 26 - President Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday the government must lead the way to encourage investments in alternative and renewable fuel production to help reduce consumption of natural gas and crude oil.

KIEV, March 26 - The government may allocate 7.7 billion hryvnias to Naftogaz Ukrayiny in subsidies under a bill submitted to Parliament to compensate the company for the difference in prices of imported gas and domestic residential prices.

TOKYO, March 26 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose government been losing public support in the wake of Ukraine’s severe economic crisis, suggested on Thursday that she may support new constitutional amendments that further reduce presidential powers.

LIVADIA (Crimea), March 25 – The governments of Ukraine and Russia will revive talks on completing the cleanup work following an oil spill in the Kerch Strait in November 2007, President Viktor Yushchenko announced at a press conference in Livadia on Tuesday.

KIEV, March 26 – Ukraine's government will rein in inflation within half a year and will guarantee that the inflation rate will not exceed the 10% figure envisaged by the 2008 state budget, according to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

KIEV, March 26 – The National Bank of Ukraine has scrambled to stop the sudden appreciation of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar by changing regulations and making verbal interventions discouraging people from selling the greenback.

KIEV, March 26 - Ukraine??™s largest oil producer, UkrNafta, on Monday denied allegations from a top government official that the company had been failing to pay required tax payments to the state budget.

UkrNafta said it paid 4.75 billion hryvnias ($940 million) to central and regional budgets in 2006, up 58.9% on the year.