MILLENNIUM CORNER

15 DAYS TO GO

AIRLINES WILL be asked by Ukraine not to route flights over its territory for the first two hours of 2000.

The government announced that officials taking part in training exercises to prepare for potential millennium bug emergencies had decided that coal mines would not work over the key period, and were also considering suspending train services.

The country's atomic energy authorities have announced, however, that nuclear power stations, including the last functioning reactor at Chernobyl, are "basically ready".

The deputy prime minister for emergency situations, Viktor Hrechaninov, said: "We can't forbid foreign air carriers to fly over our airspace, but we have proposed they postpone flights for as long as it takes to be assured that all navigational systems are working and then fly."