Shakhtar deny swapping Tymoshchuk for gas

KIEV, Mar 1 (Reuters) Ukraine club Shakhtar Donetsk today denied that it had agreed to accept gas shipments as as part of a record million deal with Russia's Zenit St Petersburg for midfielder Anatoly Tymoshchuk.

''I hereby state that there is no gas element in the agreement for the transfer of Anatoly Tymoshchuk to Zenit, nor was this even possible,'' Serhiy Palkin, Shakhtar's general director said on the club's Web site ((www.shakhtar.com)).

''Shakhtar is a soccer club, not a gas broker.'' Shakhtar yesterday said the fee paid for the 27-year-old Ukraine international was the highest paid by a club in a former Soviet state.

Some Ukrainian media had reported that half of the sum paid for the transfer would be settled in natural gas shipments to plants owned by the club's president, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest business magnate.

In December, Zenit, backed by the vast resources of energy giant Gazprom, set another record by signing Rubin Kazan's Argentine striker Alejandro Domingues in a 7 million dollars contract.

That was the highest domestic fee between two Russian presmier league sides.

Reuters SY DB2254