DUSHANBE - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said Saturday the country will continue talks with Russia on updating bilateral gas supply contracts.

"We are maintaining dialogue all the time, and it will be continued today," Yanukovych told reporters on the sidelines of an ongoing Commonwealth of Independent States summit in the Tajik capital.

Negotiations on repricing Russian gas exports to Ukraine, which have been going on for 18 months, should be held "all the time" between such partners as Ukraine and Russia that have a bilateral trade volume of 50 billion U.S. dollars, he said.

"Therefore, we have to resolve this issue together. We do not have another option, and time will show how we can do that," he added.

Asked by an Interfax reporter on whether Ukraine would take the dispute to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce if Russia refuses to amend the gas contracts, Yanukovych said that would be the last resort.

"I hope we will have enough wisdom to find a solution together without going to court. I see the court as a last resort, after we exhaust all of our opportunities in negotiations," he said.

Russia said earlier that it would lower gas price supplied to Ukraine if the latter aborts a plan to form a free trade zone with the European Union and allows Russia's Gazprom to control half of Ukraine's state-owned oil giant Naftogaz.