The Verkhovnaya Rada voted against privatization of one of the largest steel enterprises in the former Soviet republic after President Viktor Yushchenko vetoed an earlier vote.
The initiative to ban the re-privatization came from the Socialist Party, which said the Nikopol plant was strategically important for Ukraine's mining and metallurgic industry. The plant sells products to metal enterprises in Russia, Kazakhstan, France, Norway, Mexico, India, Britain and South Africa.
The factory was nationalized under the previous cabinet headed by Yuliya Tymoshenko, who pursued a campaign to re-privatize some of the assets belonging to businessmen seen as close to former President Leonid Kuchma.
Tymoshenko herself was later accused of promoting the interests of certain business groups, and was fired as PM by Yushchenko on September 8, 2005.
In a bid to restore business confidence and improve investment climate, Ukrainian officials announced late last year that re-privatization was over.
