INTRODUCTION OF UKRAINIAN CURRENCY DELAYED.

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma said yesterday that the introduction of the new Ukrainian currency, the hryvna, would be delayed from next month until some time next year. "All the conditions [for its introduction] were 100 percent there in the summer, but we waited too long," Kuchma said at a joint news conference with Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Almaty. According to Kuchma, talks with the IMF on creating a $1.5-2 billion stabilization fund for the hryvna had not yet produced concrete results. The IMF makes its decision on allocating new credits to Ukraine later this month.

Moscow Won’t Give In on NATO Enlargement.