The Ukrainian government on Tuesday set a $2 billion starting price for a 93.2 percent stake in the country's most profitable steel mill, more than doubling the price at which the mill was sold last year in a disputed privatization deal.
 The State Property Fund also said in a statement that the winning bidder for the Kryvorizhstal steel mill would be obligated to invest $2.3 billion between 2006 and 2013 for unspecified improvements. The mill is to be auctioned in October. The government statement offered no further details.
 Kryvorizhstal was sold last year for $800 million to a consortium controlled by Rinat Akhmetov, the wealthiest man in Ukraine, and Viktor Pinchuk, a son-in-law of the former president, Leonid Kuchma.
 Other major steel companies, including Severstal of Russia and United States Steel, claimed that they had made substantially higher bids than the consortium did for the mill, of around $1.2 billion.
 After a long legal battle, the new government headed by President Viktor Yushchenko seized control of the mill in June, calling the earlier sale a theft.