KIEV, July 23 - Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday she had reached an agreement with Russia's Gazprom on a special formula to set prices for gas deliveries in 2009, but did not give details.

Tymoshenko, who met Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in Kiev on Tuesday, said the formula will be used after Gazprom prices gas imports from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

"We have found an approach for pricing for next year. We have agreed on a formula of setting the price, found a compromise on how to formulate a price for next year," Tymoshenko told a regular cabinet meeting.

"Gazprom will soon conclude talks with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and after that we would be able to set a final price for next year," she said.

Gazprom refused to immediately comment on Wednesday.

Gazprom has been so far refusing to use any formula for setting gas prices for Ukraine, instead insisting on the price matching the world market price.

Gazprom has earlier this year indicated that the gas price may grow to as much as $400 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2009, up from $179.5/1,000 cu m charged in 2008.

Last month Tymoshenko rejected such a steep price hike, warning that Ukraine may in turn steeply hike price it charges Gazprom for the transit of gas to the EU.

The use of the formula, which does not include the political component, in setting gas prices would be a major change in relations between Ukraine and Russia.

The relations have been strained over the past several years over Kiev’s push seeking to join NATO, an alliance that Moscow views as a military threat.

In December, NATO is to announce whether Ukraine is granted the Membership Action Plan, a program that immediately precedes the accession, in a move that will provide more strains to the relations between Kiev and Moscow.

Analysts said that Russia would probably wait until after the NATO summit in December before announcing the gas prices it will charge Ukraine in 2009.

Kostiantyn Borodin, the head of the Center for Energy Research, a Kiev-based think tank, said the price may actually reach $450 per 1,000 cu m if Ukraine joins the MAP.

But there were mounting speculations in Kiev that Tymoshenko has promised her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to postpone Ukraine’s joining the MAP.

Viktor Baloha, the chief of staff at the President Viktor Yushchenko’s office, said the promise had been made during the Tymoshenko-Putin meeting in Moscow, as an attempt to win a better gas price deal.

Tymoshenko did not respond to the allegation. (nr/ez)