President meets UN Secretary-General

At the beginning of the meeting the UN Secretary-General praised Ukraine holding democratic presidential election.

The President said that currently our country, like many others, is looking for opportunities to effectively overcome the impact of financial and economic recession. According to him, the essential precondition for that would be unity of power in Ukraine.

The President also emphasized importance of the Nuclear Security Summit, and Ukraine’s participation in it given the use of nuclear power plants.

"We are looking for an opportunity to shift to new technologies of low-enriched uranium utilization at our NPPs", he said.

UN Secretary-General agreed with the importance of Ukraine’s participation in the summit, because Ukraine has the necessary experience in questions at the agenda and can share it.

At the meeting the President said it is necessary to appeal to donor countries to resume cooperation within the framework of "Shelter" construction at Chernobyl NPP. He said he intended to meet Director General of the IAEA Yukiya Amano and discussed the subject of Chernobyl NPP with him.

"Addressing this issue is important in the scope of the upcoming 24^th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy and preparations to the 25^th anniversary" – said Viktor Yanukovych.

The President also suggested holding an international conference with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, dedicated to the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

The President invited the UN Secretary-General to visit Ukraine. Ban Ki-moon replied that he would surely avail himself of the invitation.