KIEV, Dec. 2 - Ukraine has delayed for up to three months a tender to select a company that would design a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal near Odessa, according to the energy and fuel ministry.

The tender is now supposed to be conducted and the company selected before the end of March 2011, scrapping an earlier deadline of the end of December, according to the ministry.

The ministry did not give the reason why the tender is being delayed.

The delay comes as a surprise as the government has been working actively on promoting the project, which is supposed to open alternative to Russian supplies of natural gas to Ukraine.