KIEV, July 1 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko failed to implement instructions from President Viktor Yushchenko during natural gas talks with Russia, leaving many important issues in limbo, a top Yushchenko official said Tuesday.

Tymoshenko met her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday and, after lengthy one-on-one negotiations, had announced that the countries will seek by Sept. 15 to sign a long-term gas supply treaty.

But Viktor Baloha, Yushchenko’s chief of staff, said this was not what the instructions had said.

“We still do not have a clear understanding from whom, on what terms and what volumes [of natural gas] we will be buying next year,” Baloha said in a statement.

Yushchenko is known to have urged the government to sign an agreement before the end of July to give the economy more time to prepare for the gas price hike in January 2009.

Yushchenko, who according to the constitution conducts the country’s foreign policy, usually meets top officials ahead of talks to issue the instructions, or directives, which are kept secret.

However, at least on one occasion in March, Yushchenko was forced to declassify his directives for natural gas talks after Tymoshenko apparently tried to publicly manipulate them.

Tymoshenko had said the directives told her to sign a deal leaving RosUkrEnergo, a controversial Russian gas trader, as the only gas supplier to Ukraine, while the released directives had in effect stipulated it was “up for the government to decide.”

Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled natural gas giant, said last week that it may be forced to charge Ukraine more than $400 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas in 2009, up from $179.5/1,000 cu m in 2008.

Tymoshenko, after the talks, said such hike [to $400/1,000 cu m] “is absolutely impossible,” suggesting the prices will be increased to “the European level within the next 3-4 years.”

Gazprom, which sells gas to Ukraine through RosUkrEnergo, buys this gas from Central Asian nations, mostly from Turkmenistan, but also from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Prodan, who joined Tymoshenko on the trip to Moscow, on Tueaday said that the agreement may not be even signed by Sept. 15, but may actually take more time.

"We foresee that we would sign long-term contracts sometime in October-November," Prodan told a news conference.

That may be far too late as Ukraine needs to know gas prices to incorporate subsidies while drafting the 2009 budget. The budget draft must be submitted to Parliament no later than Sept. 15, and it should be approved no later than the end of December. (tl/ez)