KIEV -- A senior Ukrainian minister said Friday that millions of dollars had gone missing from the 1994 budget, endangering the former Soviet republic's attempt to meet targets for cutting its budget deficit.


First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk told parliament that President Leonid Kuchma had asked the prosecutor's office to examine the matter.


Pynzenyk said he had received documents from the Central Bank showing the current budget deficit to be about 140 trillion karbovanets, instead of 117 trillion karbovanets -- a gap of about 23 trillion ($190 million at street rates).


"The extra money is outside finance ministry calculations, and has gone into someone's account," Pynzenyk said.


Under Ukraine's first post-Soviet market reform plan, the budget deficit is to be reduced to 10 percent within this year's budget.