LONDON (Reuters) - Boxers from eastern Europe dominated the semi-finals of a European Olympic qualifier in Pescara, Italy on Friday and four Ukrainians booked their tickets to the Beijing Games.

Ukraine's Aleksandr Usik won his heavyweight bout on points, 15-6, against England's Daniel Price. In the final he will meet Viktar Zuyeu, one of three fighters from Belarus who earned an Olympic place.

Three Hungarians also qualified, flyweight Norbert Kalucza, lightweight Miklos Varga and light welterweight Gyula Kate.

Flyweight Khalid Yafai became the fifth English boxer to make it to the August 8-24 Games when he defeated Moldovan Igor Samoilenco 13-11.

English middleweight James de Gale will join Yafai on the plane after coming off the canvas in round two to beat Istvan Szili, the only Hungarian to lose on Friday, 17-9.

But highly rated Billy Joe Saunders, the descendant of a gypsy bare knuckle fighter, lost by the same margin to Ukraine welterweight Olexandr Stretskyy.

Ireland's John Joe Nevin dominated another Ukrainian, Maksym Tretyak, 32-16 to reach the bantamweight final where he will face Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova.

The only fight not to go the distance in the lighter divisions was won by featherweight Khesafi Djelkhir of France who forced Stephen Smith of England to retire at the end of the first round.

Twenty six places at the Olympics are up for grabs in Pescara.

The losing semi-finalists in the bantamweight, featherweight, welterweight and middleweight classes fight again on Saturday, with the winners of the 'box-offs' also going to Beijing.

Fighters in all other categories must reach their respective finals to qualify for the Olympics.

A second European qualifier will take place in Greece from April 7-14. More than 280 boxers will fight in Beijing and 128 fighters from 48 countries had qualified before this tournament.

(Writing by Robert Woodward, Editing by Tony Jimenez)