Court bailiffs yesterday served the Yukos oil company papers executing the Russian Tax Service's US$3.4 billion tax claim against the company, Russia's second largest oil producer, a company spokesman said.

　　Yukos has warned that it doesn't have the cash to pay upfront and could be driven to bankruptcy if a court order preventing it to sell its assets isn't lifted.

　　Yukos company spokesman Hugo Erikssen said that the bailiffs had delivered formal court papers demanding payment of the claim. According to Russian law, tax authorities can present the papers to banks where Yukos holds accounts and demand payment within three days.

　　Yukos shares fell 5 percent within a half-hour of the bailiffs' arrival, traders said. The bailiffs were at the company's headquarters for about two hours, Erikssen said.

　　In a proposal drafted by the company on Wednesday, Yukos offered to pay 33.95 billion rubles (US$1.17 billion) - a third of the total that it owes for 2000 - spread out over a period of two years, as well as to cover the legal costs of the Tax Service's claim.

　　The company earlier said it would not pay the remaining amount, which comprises fines, value-added tax charges and penalties, but after the order was delivered Yukos' Deputy Chairman, Yuri Beilin, told Interfax "we will comply with the law and fulfill the decision which has entered into force."

　　"Yet we still hope that the government will resolve the company's situation in a balanced and socially responsible way and that Yukos will have a chance to reschedule the debt that the court has confirmed," Beilin was quoted as saying.

　　Russian president Vladimir Putin said last month that Russia "isn't interested in the bankruptcy of such a company as Yukos," raising hope that the Kremlin would be open to some sort of deal to save the business, one of Russia's most important.

　　Analysts see the web of court cases against Yukos and its core shareholders as a Kremlin-directed move to punish former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, for his funding of opposition parties and to ensure that such a key firm in Russia's strategically important oil sector is in the hands of someone more loyal.

　　In addition to the tax claim case against the company, Khodorkovsky and his close associate Platon Lebedev are being tried on charges including tax evasion and fraud, largely in connection with the 1994 privatization of a state-owned fertilizer plant. Both face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

　　Five of Lebedev's lawyers held a news conference yesterday to publicize their concerns over their client's health and treatment in prison.

　　(The Associated Press)