Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president, may drop plans to renationalise and auction dozens of companies that he believes were sold too cheaply by the former government, according to one of his advisers.

Faced with mounting concerns over the re-auction plan among foreign investors, and the prospect that his government would become bogged down in years of court battles, Mr Yushchenko is weighing alternative proposals that would seek to forge "voluntary" settlements, according to Olexander Paskhaver, a liberal economist who is advising the president on the issue.