LUHANSK, Sept. 1 – Coal extraction in Ukraine in 2008 will be 4 million tons or 5.3% more than the figure for 2007 (75.437 million tons), according to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

"Now we have a 2.2 million tons rise [in coal compared to the same period in 2007], and this is a present for the Day of Miners. By the end of the year, we expect a rise of 4 million tons," she told the press in Luhansk.