Staff Writer Court marshals have given Yukos a month to pay off its $3.4 billion tax bill, raising faint hopes that the company may stave off bankruptcy

Staff Writer Court marshals have given Yukos a month to pay off its $3.4 billion tax bill, raising faint hopes that the company may stave off bankruptcy, as former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien emerged as a surprise mediator in the affair. Yukos stock rose 12 percent Friday after Andrei Belyakov, head of the Justice Ministry's Court Marshals Service, was reported as saying that Yukos is ready to speed up payments on its tax bill and has a month to pay. Yukos has so far paid 20 billion rubles ($690 million), about one-fifth of the bill, Belyakov said, Interfax reported. "The heads of Yukos have confirmed their wish to accelerate paying off the company's debt in the near future," Belyakov said after meeting with Yukos vice president Frank Rieger, Interfax reported. "We made it quite clear that it is pointless to make excuses to slow the repayment of the debt." But Yukos said it would need longer than a month to pay off the $3.4 billion bill for 2000, a combination of back taxes and penalties. Adding to the confusion, Belyakov was reported by Bloomberg to have denied giving the company a month to pay, while Itar-Tass reported him as saying that Yukos had promised to pay within a month. The Justice Ministry has said it would settle the claim by selling off Yuganskneftegaz, the production unit that produces nearly two thirds of Yukos' total output.