KIEV (Reuter) - Ukrainian and Western experts on Thursday narrowed differences on how to finance the shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power station but put off a final agreement pending further talks.
Both sides said progress had been made in the latest round of talks with G7 industrialised countries. But they admitted an agreement to close the site of the world's worst nuclear accident by the turn of the century could be pushed back from this month to the end of the year.
Negotiators at the two days of talks had estimated at $3.2 billion the cost of projects to shut two reactors still functioning at the site and modernise Ukraine's inefficient energy sector.
``There are no exact figures, there is only a continuing process,'' Ukraine's Environment Minister Yuri Kostenko told Reuters after the intense negotiations. ``There are still some blanks to be filled in on proposals which do not have the support of one side or another.''
A diplomat familiar with the talks said ``more than a bit of progress'' had been achieved. Discussions would be pursued through diplomatic channels, he said.
The talks have picked up speed in recent weeks after Ukraine abandoned demands for Western financing of $4 billion and construction of a gas-fired station to make up the five percent of Ukraine's power generated at Chernobyl.
Negotiators cancelled news conferences and went well beyond an initial deadline in the latest round. Ukrainian officials said they were anxious to secure guarantees on where the money would come from and when.
Diplomats said G7 proposals provided for $1.8 billion in credits and $450 million in grants to Ukraine. The former Soviet republic would be expected to provide some $900 million.
Diplomats stressed the $3.2 billion total was an aggregate for about 20 projects, subject to change.
President Leonid Kuchma bowed to Western pressure in April and promised to close Chernobyl by the turn of the century.
An explosion and fire at the station in April 1986 sent radioactivity throughout Europe in the world's worst civil nuclear accident. Ukraine says thousands have died as a result.
The G7 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- has made clear Ukraine cannot expect an open wallet and has turned talks towards funding of concrete dprojects.
The European Union and G7 countries last year pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine to close Chernobyl.