  The aim of the paper is to build a universal R-matrix for the multiparameter
deformation of any reductive Lie algebra. Such deformations, formulated in the
recent past by Truini and Varadarajan, have the property of universality in a
certain class and are shown by the present paper to be quasitriangular Hopf
algebras. In order to build the R-matrix we exploit the twisting method for
introducing new parameters as well as for making the transition to the
reductive case. The physical motivation behind this construction is in the
theory of integrable models: we intend to use such R-matrix for building the
associated quantum R-matrix and Lax operators with spectral as well as color
parameters - the color parameters being provided by the eigenvalues of the
central generators of the reductive Lie algebra in a given representation. In
this letter we present only the explicit form of the universal R-matrix of
reductive Lie algebras and postpone its application to a forthcoming paper.
