Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov announced in Bishkek on December 14 that Kyrgyzstan will pay $100 per 1,000 cubic meters for gas purchased from Uzbekistan in 2007. Under an agreement reached in Tashkent on December 13, Kyrgyzstan will buy 850 million cubic meters of gas from Uzbekistan at the new price; Kyrgyzstan paid $55 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2006. To compensate for the hike, Usenov said Kyrgyzstan will initially charge Uzbekistan 1.1 cent ($0.011) for each kilowatt-hour (KwH) of electricity and progressively raise the price to a targeted two cents by the end of 2007. Uzbekistan this year paid one cent ($0.01) per KwH of Kyrgyz electricity. (akipress.org)