ASTANA, Dec. 14 - Ukraine and Kazakhstan are in talks to jointly develop crude deposits oil in the Central Asia, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said after meeting Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev Thursday.

???There is a number of concrete proposals for Ukraine to get involved in developing oil deposits in Central Asia,??? Yanukovych said. ???Today, we??™ve discussed these concrete proposals.???

Yanukovych is in Kazakhstan to secure supplies of crude in order to diversify the country??™s oil imports and to reduce dependence on Russia as the key energy supplier.