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Russia, Ukraine should build reliable relations â€“ Yanukovych

05 March 2010 00:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Ukraine and Russia should build reliable and confident relations based on strategic partnership, President Viktor Yanukovych said Thursday, APA reports citing Ria Novosti.

"I am convinced that partners always come to an agreement," Yanukovych said in an interview on the Rossiya 24 TV news channel, adding that he hoped to reach agreement with Russia on all natural gas-related issues.

The new Ukrainian president said "the traditional issues of relations between Russia and Ukraine, including gas supplies to Ukraine, gas transit to Europe and the reliability of these supplies" will be touched upon during his one-day visit to the Russian capital on Friday for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Yanukovych, who was inaugurated on February 25, said during his election campaign that he would seek better terms for Kiev in gas contracts signed with Moscow last year.

Russia and Ukraine have long fought over natural gas deliveries, jeopardizing supplies to Europe, which gets around a quarter of its gas from Russia. In the latest row at the start of 2009, Russia halted all deliveries via Ukraineâ€™s pipeline system for two weeks.

Last yearâ€™s gas conflict was resolved when a deal on gas imports and transit was agreed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his then Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, who lost to Yanukovych in the February 7 presidential election runoff.