BERDYCHIV (Zhytomyr region), Sept. 17 – Ukraine is to construct 500 kilometers of national highways and the Ukrainian government will double funding for road construction in 2008, the leader of the Regions Party, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said on Monday.

KREMENCHUK, Sept. 17 - Illich Iron & Steel Works, one of Ukraine's top three steel producers, will invest EUR400-500 million in a converter plant next year, Volodomyr Boiko, the company's CEO, said in Kremenchuk.

KIEV, Sept. 18 – Kiev-based Ukrainian Mining & Metallurgical Company, one of the country's biggest metal traders, will be reorganized into a publicly held corporation in order to conduct an initial public offering, a source in the company told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, Sept. 19 - AeroSvit-Ukrainian Airlines said it is expecting to amicably settle a conflict with the Antimonopoly Committee over setting the price of tickets.

KIEV, Sept. 19 ??“ The investment into Tashlyk pumped-storage plant could be fully paid back in the near future thanks to the sale of greenhouse gas emissions quotas, according to First Deputy Environment Protection Minister Sviatoslav Kurulenko.

IVANO-FRANKIVSK region, Sept. 18 ??“ Austria??™s company BioDiesel Vienna is to invest EUR50 million by 2008 into the construction of a plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region to produce biodiesel from rapeseeds.

KIEV, Sept. 18 ??“ Ukraine could help Russia cut its deficit of electricity by increasing the production capacity of Ukrainian electricity plants, according to Deputy Fuel and Energy Minister Oleksiy Sheberstov.

KIEV, Sept. 15 ??“ Cilija, which runs Lithuania's largest public catering chain, opened its first Cili-Pica pizzeria in Kiev this week, a company representative said.

KIEV, Sept. 19 - Russian oil major TNK-BP, the largest gasoline retailer in Ukraine, plans to invest $120 million by the end of this year to further boost its gas station chain, the company reported Tuesday.

KIEV, Sept. 19 ??“ ChornomorNaftoGaz, the state natural gas and oil company, extracting gas and oil in the Black Sea, denied recent allegations the government had favored undisclosed foreign companies in offshore oil extraction projects.