DUSHANBE, November 30, Asia-Plus – Uzbekistan plans to hold talks with Russia in December on raising the price of Uzbek natural gas deliveries for 2008, a spokesperson for state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz said.

"The price will stay at $100 [per 1,000 cubic meters] until the end of this year, but we will hold talks in December on raising it," the company representative said without specifying any figures.

The spokesperson said the Central Asian country intended to shift from a regional price formula to world market prices.

Uzbekistan''s plans are linked to Tuesday''s agreement between neighboring Turkmenistan and Russia''s gas monopoly Gazprom to increase prices for natural gas deliveries to Russia to $130 per 1,000 cu m for the first half of 2008 and to $150 for the second, the spokesperson said.

The trend for higher prices is most likely to affect Ukraine, for which Central Asian gas supplies via Russia have been essential since early 2006, when Moscow raised the price of its natural gas deliveries to Ukraine to $230 per 1,000 cu m.

In a compromise agreement, an average price for a mixture of Turkmen and Russian gas was set at $95 per 1,000 cu m, to be raised to $100 per 1,000 cu m from January 1, 2007.

Uzbekistan produced around 60 billion cubic meters of gas in 2006 of which around 9 billion cu m was sold to Gazprom.