KIEV, March 19 - Ukraine and Russia, after three years of talks, have finally come to a point at which they will “probably” sign a deal lowering natural gas prices, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Tuesday.

Azarov, at a meeting with Wendy Sherman, a U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, in Kiev said the deal would replace a 10-year gas agreement signed with Russia in January 2009.

“We have come to the point where we will probably make the deal,” Azarov told Sherman, according to a government press service.