ZAPOROZHYE, Ukraine, Oct 6 (AFP) - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, plagued at home by opposition-led protests and tainted abroad by alleged arms sales to Iraq, on Sunday wrapped up meetings on a potentially lucrative gas deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Kuchma, who later flew with Putin to Moldova where the two will meet with leaders from other former Soviet republics, said he expected to sign an agreement on Monday that would send natural gas from Russia through a Ukrainian pipeline toward Western markets.
Putin, who called the deal "complicated" but promising, said: "We must find a common economic interest."
"Friendship and cooperation with Russia is one of the priorities of Ukrainian foreign policy," Kuchma said.
"Russia cannot exist without Ukraine, nor can Ukraine without Russia," he added.
During the leaders' talks, some 600 protesters demonstrated in Zaporozhye calling for Kuchma to step down, Ukrainsky Noviny news agency reported.
The proposed gas consortium may also include Germany, Italy and France, Putin said.
The addition of Western partners could inject a hefty investment sum of up to 2.5 billion dollars (euros) into Ukraine to refurbish existing pipelines, and up to 15 billion dollars for further extensions.
Last June Putin and Kuchma signed a declaration of intent with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to help develop Ukraine's pipeline network.
Russian gas giant Gazprom exports 130 billion cubic meters (4.6 trillion cubic feet) of gas to Europe every year, 90 percent of which is transported across Ukraine.
Observers on Sunday said Putin was giving the increasingly embattled Kuchma a much-needed show of support.
"Putin knows that Kuchma is having difficulties both within and outside of his country. He wants to take advantage by advancing Russian interests in Ukraine," Volodymir Lupatsy, director of the Sofia Center of Social Research, said.
But opposition lawmakers, who have led protests in recent weeks calling for Kuchma's resignation, said the deal threatened to put Kiev's gas industry under the power of Moscow.
"Ukraine's independence in the energy sector is at stake," opposition deputy Olexander Gudyma said.
Socialist and communist leaders, as well as the center-right head Yulia Timoshenko accuse Kuchma of corruption and abuse of power, but the Ukrainian strongman has categorically refused to quit before the end of his mandate in 2004.
Tainted by scandal and accused of ordering the assassination of opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, Kuchma has seen his popularity ratings plunge in the three years since his re-election, with nearly 55 percent of Ukrainians wanting his resignation.
Opponents have latched on to US claims that Kuchma personally approved the sales of military equipment to Iraq as further proof he is hurting the republic.
Washington has accused Kiev of selling four military radar systems to Baghdad that could be against US and British warplanes. If confirmed, the sale would be a blatant violation of UN sanctions against Iraq, imposed following the 1991 Gulf War.
In Moldova, Kuchma and Putin will attend a two-day summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose association of 12 former Soviet republics.
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