"The financial interests are prepared to pay off the debts of YUKOS and if necessary simultaneously pay off the material damages claimed against Mr. Khodorkovsky," the private investors said in a letter sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Thursday, YUKOS said it could go bankrupt by mid-August if it did not find cash to pay the tax claim.

Little is known about the consortium and it is difficult to say how realistic the offer is. "They have enough money. It's a very serious offer," consortium spokesman Charles Stewart-Smith was quoted as saying by Reuters. He declined to say how many investors were in the group or how they could raise the huge funds needed to back the deal.

According to Mr. Stewart-Smith, the main player in the consortium is Konstantin Kagalovsky, a former YUKOS minority shareholder now resident in Britain. He added it was important to note that none of the investors was resident in Russia.

There was no comment from the Presidential Administration, Reuters said.

On Thursday, YUKOS CEO Steven Theede said that YUKOS had sent eleven letters to the Russian government over the past 1.5 months, but there had been no response. In particular, he said, letters had been sent to the Finance Ministry, the Justice Ministry and the Prime Minister’s office. Mr. Theede said he hoped that the letters had been written. He also said that the company did not understand the position of the Russian government on the possibility of YUKOS paying off a RUR 99.4bn (about $3.4bn) tax claim.

According to Mr. Theede, the company needed a dialog with the government to understand what proposals YUKOS could offer to settle the problem. He added that certainty about possible new tax claims for the years 2001-2003 would allow YUKOS to have a better understanding of the company’s position.

The Arbitration Court of Moscow upheld the tax authorities’ demand against YUKOS, and ruled that the oil company shall pay RUR 99.3bn in back taxes for 2000. Court bailiffs froze YUKOS’s assets and announced their intention to put Yuganskneftegaz, the oil group’s key oil production company, up for sale.