Kiev - Ukraine's government on Wednesday ordered the country's leading PFTS stock exchange to stay closed throughout the day, the Interfax news agency reported.

The decision came after the market hit a record low on Tuesday, and was widely predicted to continue a plunge of as much as 12 per cent a day, observers said.

The PFTS lost 11 per cent overall value on Tuesday, with banks plummeting between 22 to 26 per cent, and metals producers slumping 13 to 16 per cent, the Dragon Capitol trading house reported.

Ukraine's government has been locked in a constitutional crisis for more than two months and has struggled to take steps to control economic damage from recent drops in foreign shares exchanges.

Kiev- Ukraine's leading PFTS stock exchange plummeted on Tuesday, with some shares losing 9 per cent in minutes after opening and the government considering another halt to trading of some firms.

Stock in the massive Azovstal steel company dropped 9.15 per cent in value shortly after trading began, and "practically all" of Ukraine's other major metals manufacturers were early big losers, the Interfax news agency reported.

Kiev - Six Ukrainians died in a Saturday coal-mine blast, the Interfax news agency reported.

The explosion resulting from a methane gas build-up took place in the Duvana shaft near the city of Sukhodolsk, in the eastern Luhansk province.

An evacuation of the surviving 113 miners from 550 metres below ground was completed without incident.

An investigation into possible violations of safety procedures was in progress, Vice Prime Minister Oleksander Turchinov said.

The government would provide financial assistance to the victims' families, he said.

Kiev- A Boeing 747 passenger airliner bound for Netherlands lost the use of one of its engines while flying over Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The plane had flown from Kuala Lumpur to the airspace of the former Soviet republic without incident, when one of the Boeing's four engines stopped working at 0345 GMT.

The report did not identify the carrier operating the aircraft.

Ukrainian airport personnel in the eastern city cleared a strip for an emergency landing, and airport staff in the cities Kiev and Simferopol were ordered to stand by.

Washington - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is expected to visit his counterpart George W Bush on Monday, the White House said Thursday.

Warsaw- PKN Orlen, Poland's biggest refiner, plans to extract oil and gas in Poland, the Baltic Sea and possibly Ukraine and Africa, the company's new head told the Puls Biznesu business daily Tuesday.

PKN Orlen intends to cooperate with Kuwait Energy Company, and the two companies are working on a project in the Baltic that's "only the beginning" of the partnership, the Dziennik daily reported.

"Orlen, in addition to refining oil" and sales, should take up "seeking and extracting raw energy," chief executive Jacek Krawiec told Dziennik.