WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (AFP) - The United States on Thursday renewed its concerns about Russia's handling of the case against top oil producer Yukos and its embattled owners as world oil prices hit new highs amid deep uncertainties in the market due to Iraq and Venezuela.
The State Department was careful to avoid any comment possible connections between the Yukos prosecution and the world petroleum market, but said Washington feared the chaos surrounding the case would hurt prospects for much-needed foreign investment in Russia's economy, particularly in its oil sector.
"All parties need to arrive at a solution that resolves this case in accordance with the rule of law and due process without influence from political considerations and that respects those principles," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"In our view the appearance of a lack of due process and threat to private property rights have resulted in both the Russian and the international business communities being on their guard," he told reporters.
"The way the case has been handled also raises questions about respect for investment rights in Russia and has led to increased capital flight and a decline in new investment that is certainly having an impact on the Russian economy," Ereli said.
He noted that Secretary of State Colin Powell had raised the matter with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the NATO summit in Istanbul in June as had assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Beth Jones, with officials in Moscow in late July.
Ereli spoke as a White House official confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal that US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had spoken to Kremlin chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev about Yukos over the weekend.
"They talked about issues involving Yukos," the official said.
The United States and others have spoken critically about the prosecution of Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky who is said to have angered Russian President Vladimir Putin by financing opposition parties.
Yukos was declared in default last week by Bank Menatep -- founded by the principal Yukos shareholders who control just over 40 percent of the shares, now frozen -- that now wants to recover its 1.6-billion-dollar (1.3-billion-euro) loan to the company.
The news infuriated Western investors because Yukos announced the default news after the benchmark RTS stock exchange had closed on Wednesday and offered no explanation for why it waited nearly a week to make it public.
But most agreed Thursday that Menatep and Khodorkovsky, now sitting in a Moscow jail and watching Yukos disintegrate, were simply trying to be quick off the mark as their company is sold off.
The state has first rights to Yukos property, claiming a massive tax bill of 3.4 billion dollars that could balloon to nearly 10 billion in coming months.
Yukos produces about 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, equivalent to about one fifth of Saudi Arabia's output and nearly as much as the maximum that Iraq has pumped recently of about 2.0 million barrels per day.