For the first time in Ukraine's history, a major industrial enterprise is slated to go under the hammer live on television. President Viktor Yushchenko has staked his reputation on the auction to privatize the Kryvorizhstal steel mill, Ukraine's biggest. His opponents are determined to block it.

Parliamentary critics twice last week mustered enough votes to press the government to halt Monday's sale of the 93.02 percent stake in the mill, but Mr Yushchenko shrugged off their nonbinding appeal, just as he has the legal challenges waged by the mill's former owners. "There won't even be talk of reconsidering the decision," Mr Yushchenko said Friday, adding that a repeat auction was necessary "first of all, morally and politically." "We want the repeat sale to show one thing: breaches in the law ... will be corrected," Yushchenko said.

Kryvorizhstal, which produces 20 percent of Ukraine's entire metal output, was sold in June 2004 by the state for $800 million in a privatization widely condemned as rigged. The buyers: Former President Leonid Kuchma's son-in-law, Viktor Pinchuk; and coal and steel magnate Rynat Akhmetov.
During last year's Orange Revolution, Yushchenko called the sale a "theft" and pledged it would be reversed.

In the running are the Mittal Steel and two Ukrainian firms LLC Smart Group, with Russian links, and Industrial Group, controlled by France's Arcelor.