A senior Russian official said Tuesday that a new Russian-Ukrainian joint aluminum concern would be formed that would help supply raw materials to the giant Krasnoyarsk smelter.


Alexander Deineko, head of the government's industry department, said the agreement on the transnational company was likely to be signed in Kiev this week during a visit by Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets.


"This is a completely new international plan aimed at solving the problem of alumina supplies," Deineko said.


He said the new company would comprise Ukraine's Nikolayev alumina plant, Russia's Krasnoyarsk smelter, Krasnoyarsk Metal, the Novosibirsk electrode factory, the Achinsk alumina plant, Metaleks bank and the Krasnoyarsk railway.


Interfax said Monday that Nikolayev's capacity was 1 million tons of alumina a year and it supplied 800,000 tons to Russia in 1994.


The new plan appears to be a broadened version of an earlier idea to merge aluminum-related companies in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region. Deineko declined to say whether the previous scheme had been dumped, but said the two were not related.


Asked whether the various units of the planned company, once state-controlled but now independent joint-stock companies, agreed to join the new concern, Deineko said: "Some of them do, some of them do not.


"But I'm confident that all of them will gradually understand the necessity and profitability of this scheme. Everyone will benefit."


Still, it remains unclear how the government, which has a minority stake in most of the companies, would be able to enforce the deal in the event of shareholders voting against it.


The terms under which the enterprises are to be linked are not clear either, but the scheme appears similar to restructuring that has taken place in the oil industry.


The news about the government plans took Russia's major aluminum producers group Aluminy by surprise, a sign that the idea has not been widely discussed in industry circles.


"This is the first time I've heard anything of this kind," said Sergei Znamensky, head of Aluminy's foreign economic relations department.


"On the other hand, this plan should not be rejected outright. The idea of restoring lost economic ties and settling problems of supplies is very welcome. But under what conditions and at what price?"