BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The Ukrainian parliament sacked Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov and his government on Tuesday over a five-year gas deal with Russia, which had come under heavy fire from many Ukrainian parties that said the deal harmed the country's economic and security interests.

    Relations between Ukraine and Russia soured in December 2005 when the two began to dispute over the price of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine.

    Russia has re-exported 112 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines each year.

    Under a contract between the two countries, Russia has to provide 17 billion cubic meters of gas for Ukraine each year as "territory transit fees," and in return, Ukraine buys 8 billion cubic meters of Russian gas each year at a favorable price of 50 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

    In March 2005, Ukraine suggested Russia abandon the old gas trade pattern, and proposed to raise the "transit fees" from the original 1.09 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters to 2 to 2.5 dollars.

    Russia, on the other hand, proposed to raise the transit fees to 1.5 to 1.75 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters and the gas prices to 160 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters starting from Jan. 1, 2006.

    Later, Moscow further raised the price to 230 dollars per 1,000cubic meters.

    But Ukraine rejected Russia's price demands, saying it favors aphased price rise to ease pressure on its gas-reliant industries.

    The two sides held rounds of negotiation on the gas prices, but failed to make any substantial progress. On Jan. 1, 2006, Russia reduced its gas supplies via the Ukrainian pipelines and many European nations were affected.

    On Jan. 3, 2006, the two sides came back to the negotiation table in Moscow and a five-year deal on gas deliveries was reached eventually.

    Under a complex price scheme, the Russian oil giant Gazprom will sell gas for 230 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters to the Rosukrenergo trading company, which will mix the Russian gas with gas from Central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and sell the blend to Ukraine for 95 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

    The two also agreed on a new price for transit of gas through Ukraine to Europe of 1.60 dollars for every 1,000 cubic meters transported 100 km, up by nearly 50 percent from the previous price of 1.09 dollars. Enditem