SAO PAULO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian petrochemical

companies Braskem ( BAK ) and Unipar said on

Friday that they had kicked off talks regarding some of

Braskem's ( BAK ) assets.

Neither firm's stock exchange filing mentioned specific

assets. A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that

Unipar was weighing a deal to buy Braskem's ( BAK ) units in Texas,

Pennsylvania and West Virginia for around $1 billion, as first

reported by newspaper O Globo.

Conversations have been ongoing for several weeks, but have

not yet come close to a final agreement, the source said.

Both firms said that a confidentiality agreement had been

signed, but that no other deal, binding or not, had been

reached.

They declined to comment further when contacted by Reuters.

Braskem's ( BAK ) chief executive officer had on Thursday denied any

interest in selling the assets.