RUSSIA - Oct. 20 - Prosecutor To Question Yukos Chief Again.

The first deputy prosecutor, Yury Biryukov, says he intends to summon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the group's chief executive and largest shareholder, for a second time, as his investigations intensified. He says that he planned to question the head of YukosSibneft, the country's largest oil group, about new criminal investigations. The move came as lawyers for a security officer with Yukos [before the Sibneft merger]Alexei Pichugin, who has been imprisoned since June over his alleged involvement in a murder, said his personal priest had also been summoned for questioning. Prosecutors had earlier turned down requests from the Russian Orthodox priest to visit his charge. Lawyers warned that the interrogation risked violating laws respecting priests' rights of confidentiality. The inquiries into Yukos, which have tarnished Russia's image abroad, have been widely interpreted as politically motivated. Analysts have linked them to Khodorkovsky's political ambitions or to the company's commercial rivals. YukosSibneft is exploring the possibility of selling a significant stake in the company to ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco, in what could amount to the largest foreign investment deal in Russia. A government adviser who is close to YukosSibneft forecast on Oct. 20 that ExxonMobil was most likely to prevail, saying: "The deal between Yukos and ExxonMobil will be finalised. There have been no objections from Pres. Vladimir Putin". Khodorkovsky, who has rejected the charges against Yukos's employees and denounced widespread procedural violations in the way the investigations have been carried out, said on Monday that he was ready to answer any new questions from prosecutors. Speaking at the release of his company's latest financial results, Khodorkovsky refused to comment on merger speculation, while saying that he was always open to approaches. Yukos has already denounced a series of prosecutors' raids, including one on a company lawyer that the oil group said violated client privilege, and was conducted without showing him the search warrant required from a judge under Russian procedures. Biryukov says that the case against Yukos's second largest shareholder ,Platon Lebedev, who has been held in custody since early July, would soon be compiled and sent to court. He added that the investigation into Vasily Shakhnovsky, another large shareholder questioned last Friday about alleged tax evasion, should be concluded by next week. YukosSibneft announced net profits of $2. 2bn for the six months to June 30 under US accounting rules.