Oct 20, 2010 - BBC Monitoring

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that tripartite talks with Belarus and Lithuania on the supply of electric power to Lithuania are starting, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN has reported.

Yanukovych said this at a joint news conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Dalya Grybauskaite in Vilnius on 14 October.

The Ukrainian private ICTV channel showed Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko as confirming this. "Tomorrow, we are starting talks with our Belarusian colleagues so that they allow us to transport [electric power] to Lithuania. We have agreed the volumes. I think it will be profitable both for us as electric power suppliers and Lithuania, for which we will supply approximately one third of the amount purchased," he said.

Sources: UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1050 gmt 14 Oct 10; ICTV television, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1545 gmt 14 Oct 10

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