Saulius Specius said the Lithuanian government intended to employ Dutch and British lawyers to influence the trial in Amsterdam, where a court arrested Yukos' stake in the company at the request of the Yukos' Western creditors.
Specius said the government had set up a special commission to conduct negotiations with Yukos and TNK-BP over Mazeikiu Nafta.
The commission, led by Economic Minister Kestutis Dauksys, includes Saulius Specius and Deputy Economic Minister Nerijus Eidukevicius.
Mazeikiu nafta owns the only oil refinery in the Baltic states, an oil export terminal, and the Birzai pipeline.
Earlier, the Lithuanian parliament had passed a law authorizing the government to secure a loan of $1 billion to buy 53.7% of shares in Mazeikiu Nafta from Yukos and resell them, together with 30.66% of the government's 40.66%, to a new owner.
Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas has said that TNK-BP would be given priority in talks over Mazeikiu Nafta.
However, the government said negotiations with other contenders were also possible, in particular, with Russia's LUKoil, US-based ConocoPhilips refiner, the subsidiary of the Russia's Gazprom natural gas monopoly Gazprombank, Kazakhstan's Kazmunaigaz, Swiss oil trader Vitol, and Austria's Baltic Holding.
