KYIV. March 31 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Interior Ministry has dismissed claims by Council of Europe monitors on Tuesday that Ukrainian investigations into violence perpetrated on Independence Square in Kyiv between November 30, 2013, and February 21, 2014, have been inefficient and that the police have deliberately been raising obstacles to them.

The allegations had been made at a news conference in Kyiv by Sir Nicolas Bratza, head of the International Consultative Group, a team appointed by Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland to check whether Ukrainian probes into the violence on Independence Square were in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights precedents.

"Weekly joint meetings have been organized for summing up the performance of a special investigation group of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and a standing operational group of the Interior Ministry, which has made it possible to significantly intensify the work of criminal investigation and eliminate discrepancies in the work of the investigation teams of the different agencies that were in place initially," the ministry said in a statement.

"It is most likely this problem, that the head of the International Consultative Group, Nicolas Bratza, spoke about at the news conference, making use of inauthentic and obsolete information," the ministry said.

"Hence, accusations that the Interior Ministry of Ukraine raises systemic obstacles in the investigation of crimes on [Independence Square] are unfounded and the information about allegedly insufficient cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office is inauthentic," it said.

"The Interior Ministry stands ready to meet with the International Consultative Group of the Council of Europe at any time and