KIEV, May 22 - President Viktor Yushchenko, opening a regional energy summit in Kiev on Thursday, said routing supplies of Caspian Sea oil via Ukraine to the European Union would “minimize” political threats to energy security.

Yushchenko, who has been pushing hard for starting supplies of Caspian oil via the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline, said a link to a Polish oil pipeline would be crucial for the project.