KIEV, Sept. 7 - President Viktor Yushchenko, citing concerns over Ukraine’s energy security, on Friday ordered the government to shake up the team that is holding talks with Russia over natural gas supplies in 2008.

Yushchenko urged the government to include in the talks officials from the Foreign Ministry and from the National Security and Defense Council, the country’s top security body.

Both the foreign ministry and the council are controlled by the president, as opposed to other members of the government, which are` loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, his political opponent.

The talks have so far been handled by Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Boyko, who has a strong personal relationship with Dmytro Firtash, a co-owner of RosUkrEnergo, Ukraine’s only supplier of Russian gas.

Boyko has been frequently holding the talks in Moscow behind closed doors and never involving officials from the Ukrainian embassy and the foreign ministry.

Yushchenko’s decree comes three weeks after Viktor Baloha, the chief of staff at the presidential office, expressed concerns over a looming energy crisis in Ukraine by the end of the year.

The decree underscores growing concerns over Russian gas supplies to Ukraine in 2008, but also over transit of Russian gas via Ukrainian pipelines to the European Union.

Yushchenko ordered the government to draft within the next seven days policy directives that must be approved by the president to become an official guideline for the talks.

“The directives, covering issues of gas supplies to Ukraine, transit via Ukraine and storage in underground gas tanks for selling overseas, must be submitted for approval by Sept. 15,” Yushchenko said in the decree.

This comes as Ukraine and Russia have failed to agree by the deadline of the middle of August over natural gas prices to be charged in 2008.

The middle of August was picked as the deadline to allow the government to incorporate the price figure in the draft 2008 budget that must be submitted to Parliament by Sept. 15.

But Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said in July that more time was needed for the talks to complete, and suggested the talks may complete in October or November.

Russia’s refusal to complete the talks as scheduled led to speculation that Moscow may be waiting until after the Sept. 30 election in Ukraine to decide on the extent of the price hike.

This may punish a pro-Western government that may be formed after the election to replace the pro-Russian government of Yanukovych, analysts said.

Boyko, a loyalist of Yanukovych, last month suggested the gas price was not likely to exceed $143/1,000 cubic meters in 2008, up from $130/1,000 cu m charged in 2007.

But Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, a member of the pro-Russian government coalition who frequently travels to Moscow, said last week that he was told by Russian officials the pro-Western government would face a gas price of $300/1,000 cu m in 2008.

Russia already punished the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov in early 2006 by almost doubling gas prices to $95/1,000, cu m from $50/1,000 cu m in 2005.

The price dispute led to brief disruptions of gas supplies from Russia to the European Union as Russia moves about 80% of its European gas exports via pipelines in Ukraine. (sb/ez)