The fraud trial of Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky resumes today amid reports of new efforts to strike a deal and save embattled oil firm YUKOS, in which he is the main shareholder.

Interfax news agency quoted a senior YUKOS source yesterday as saying Chief Executive Stephen Theede had offered the government $7.5 billion in payments over three years in a move to save YUKOS.

The oil giant missed a deadline for repayment of $3.4 billion in back taxes last Wednesday. Previous management offers have been met with silence.

Mr Khodorkovsky turned YUKOS into Russia's largest oil firm, but since he fell out of favour it has been hit by tax bills that total almost $7 billion and threaten it with bankruptcy.

His trial is one of the most significant in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, and represents the centre piece of a crackdown on billionaire businessmen.

The so-called "oligarchs" carved up huge slices of industry and exercised considerable political influence in the late 1990s, but President Vladimir Putin has reined them in.

Khodorkovsky's personal fortune of more than $15 billion made him Russia's richest man, but it was his funding of liberal opposition parties that many say has caused his downfall.

Police seized him last October on charges widely seen as punishment for his political ambitions by a Kremlin that shows little tolerance of viable opposition.

In line with Russian court practice, Khodorkovsky, 41, who is accused of fraud and tax evasion, will watch the proceedings from inside a metal cage. He will be accompanied by Platon Lebedev, another big YUKOS shareholder and ally, who was arrested a year ago on similar charges.

Today's hearing could end in a further adjournment. The trial is expected to drag on well into the autumn.

YUKOS's future largely depends on whether Khodorkovsky and core shareholders can strike a deal with the government that would almost certainly see them relinquish control.