Ukraine, Polish leaders agree on closer energy cooperation

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The leaders of Ukraine and Poland agreed Friday to intensify cooperation in the energy sector and said they will examine a proposal to extend a Ukrainian natural gas pipeline to a Polish refinery and port.

The visiting Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, said the cooperation was necessary to help stabilize the region's energy supplies, a concern that has preoccupied European leaders since a dispute between Russia and Ukraine resulted in a cutoff of gas supplies earlier this year.

"It is important for us to have solidarity in a stable delivery of gas to various national markets," Yushchenko told reporters in Warsaw. "And that is possible only through cooperation."

He and Polish President Lech Kaczynski said they want to hold an international conference in October in Warsaw to explore whether to extend Ukraine's Odessa-Brody pipeline to bring Caspian Sea oil through Ukraine to Poland and the rest of Europe. Under the proposal, the pipeline would be linked to the Polish refinery in Plock and the Baltic port of Gdansk.

Yushchenko said the time has come to present the proposal to an "international forum."

Countries in the region have sought ways to lessen their dependence on Russian oil and gas since Moscow cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in a price dispute four months ago.

May 12 2006