"We shall not accept them by any means, because they mean eternal servitude."

The EBRD approved in principle a $215 million loan to help make up the four percent of its generating capacity lost by the closure of Chernobyl, site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986.

The money is to be spent on completing two reactors in western Ukraine at Rivne and Khmelnitsky.

But the bank set tough conditions for the loan, making it contingent on a resumption of aid from the International Monetary Fund which was approved two months ago. It also demanded improving safety at Ukraine's four nuclear power stations. The final agreement is to be signed by December 7.

But EBRD spokesman Jeff Hiday told Reuters in London that the bank had received a letter from Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh saying that Kiev would not sign the deal by the deadline but wished to continue talks.

"The main thing is they want to review the requirement to adhere to timetable and targets for raising energy tariffs," Hiday said.

Kuchma, in Moscow for a summit of ex-Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States, said Ukraine would cooperate more closely with Russia in nuclear sector development and restructuring.

"It is no secret that all nuclear power stations and nuclear reactors are of Russian production," he said.

"That is why we shall not take any action without Russian participation. All fuel used in nuclear reactors is Russian. If we abandon it, a number of towns...will cease to exist."

Kuchma said closer Ukraine-Russia nuclear cooperation would be one of the main subjects for discussion between Kinakh and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov during the summit and a government meeting at the start of December.

"Under the Soviet Union, we produced missiles and used no foreign materials, because we knew there might always come a time when we would no longer be able to get foreign materials," Kuchma said.