Ukraine and Russia reached agreement this week on a new gas price, after Moscow had cut off supplies to its neighbour on January 1 over the dispute.

"We already produce half of our energy requirements with nuclear power," Yekhanurov told Friday's edition of Berliner Zeitung.

"We will have to increase capacity in the newly built nuclear plants." Ukraine was the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded in 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe.

The country currently has four working nuclear power plants.

Yekhanurov said Ukraine would also develop alternative sources of energy, including hydroelectricity and wind and solar power.

"The first task is to diversify our energy sources," he told the paper.

The standoff with Russia began when Ukraine rejected a price rise that would have pushed the cost of gas from 50 dollars to 230 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres (35,000 cubic feet).

Under a complex deal agreed on Wednesday, Ukraine will instead this year pay 95 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres of natural gas -- nearly double the price it paid last year but far less than Russia had originally asked for.

The crisis had threatened gas supplies to several European countries which use Ukraine's pipeline.

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