KIEV, Dec 23: Ukraine said on Friday it had begun preparing for a possible appeal to an international arbitration court in Stockholm to resolve an escalating row with Russia over natural gas supplies.

Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov ordered the state-owned Naftogaz oil and gas firm to “prepare all necessary materials... for forwarding to the Stockholm court.”

The appeal would be formally filed with an arbitration panel at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in the event of “further irresponsible statements,” Interfax quoted Yekhanurov as saying at the start of a cabinet meeting, in an apparent reference to Russia’s Gazprom monopoly.—AFP