Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Friday she expected Ukraine to sign a deal by the end of next month with Russia on the delivery of gas starting from 2009.
"I am very hopeful of being able to sign this agreement before the end of October and it will not be for a year but for a prospective period" of "three to four" years, she told the news agencies including AFP.
In July, Tymoshenko said she had reached a framework agreement with Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) on the politically sensitive issue of boosting the price of gas deliveries.
Disagreements over a planned gas price increase have raised the specter of a repetition of a 2006 pricing dispute which led Russia briefly to cut Ukraine's gas, disrupting supplies to several European Union countries.