KIEV (Kyodo) Money Japan paid Ukraine in 2009 to purchase greenhouse gas emission rights from Kiev was diverted away from environmental investments, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday.

Yanukovych made the remarks at a news conference in Kiev with the Japanese media ahead of his visit to Japan from Tuesday. He said the diversion, which broke a Kyoto Protocol commitment, took place under Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

But Yanukovych stressed that the money was replenished last May with a different governmental budget and expressed Ukraine's readiness to carry out a new round of emission rights transactions with Japan.