Ukraine still in talks with US about minerals deal, spokesman says

(Reuters) - Ukraine is continuing to hold talks with the United States about a minerals deal, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.

The White House said on Wednesday it had moved beyond "just the economic minerals deal framework" and was focused on peace between Ukraine and Russia, and President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the U.S. would sign the minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly.

"Ukraine was even ready to sign the agreement in Jeddah," spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi told a briefing, referring to talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia last week and ahead of more talks there in coming days.

He said the U.S. team had at that time requested additional consultations in Washington about the deal, which Trump sees as a way to pay back Washington for its assistance to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Tykhyi said the teams "continued dialogue" but declined to comment on media reports that the U.S was aiming to change the terms of the agreed draft, envisaging creating a reconstruction investment fund tied to the sale of Ukraine's minerals.

"If the American side has additional ideas on how to conclude this document, how to move forward, they need to be considered at the level of teams that are communicating," Tykhyi said.

The White House has suggested the U.S. could help run and possibly own Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denied on Thursday that he and Trump had discussed potential American ownership.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Timothy Heritage)

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