KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian State Property Fund wants to renationalize stakes in 194 companies whose owners failed to meet their investment obligations, the fund's head said Thursday.

Valentyna Semenyuk, head of the agency overseeing privatizations, said that legal proceedings had been started to challenge the sales, which include mostly small and midsize companies.

Kiev's appeal court, meanwhile, upheld an earlier ruling declaring illegal the sale last year of Ukraine's largest steel mill, Kryvorizhstal.

Ukraine's new leaders have denounced as "theft" the sale of the mill for $800 million - below other offers - to a group of businessmen linked to former President Leonid Kuchma. The case was one of several under way, and the owners vowed to appeal again.

The administration of President Viktor Yushchenko has pledged to review a slew of privatizations conducted in dubious circumstances under his predecessor and has tightened controls over how investors meet their obligations.

"Now this process has accelerated. I want the property fund to control how investors meet their investment obligations," Semenyuk told a news conference. "If an investor meets his obligations, he has nothing to fear."

Semenyuk gave no details on the 194 companies. She said nothing of whether it included the 29 major state companies Yushchenko said last month might be subject to review.

Yushchenko had promised to make the names of 29 companies public last week.

But no list has been disclosed, and officials have not explained the delay in presenting one.

Privatization has proved the most divisive issue for the government since it took office in February, weeks after Yushchenko won a presidential election in the aftermath of mass "Orange Revolution" protests that helped oust Kuchma.

Government officials are locked in discussions over the extent of any privatization review and whether to put up companies for new tenders or oblige current owners to make additional payment.

Both Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko singled out Kryvorizhstal as the most notorious case.

Source: International Herald Tribune