People’s Daily Online, China
Jan 18 2009

Gas summit kicks off in Moscow
January 18, 2009

A summit gathering Russian, Ukrainian, EU and other leaders began here
Saturday in a new push to end the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev
that has left millions of Europeans without heating in the depths of
winter for more than a week.

Those attending the talks included Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, EU Energy Commissioner
Andris Piebalgs and Czech Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman.

Armenia’s president, the prime ministers of Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Moldova and Serbia, as well as officials from Turkey, Slovakia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina also joined the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Tymoshenko had a brief meeting with her Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin, who just returned from a visit to Germany
and also attended the Kremlin talks. The two premiers were expected to
continue their talks later Saturday.

While EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger has described the talks as
the "last and best chance" to resolve the gas crisis, Medvedev said at
the start of the meeting in the Kremlin that efforts to settle the
crisis had so far yielded no results.

"We’ll do everything to resolve the current crisis," Medvedev told
delegates attending the summit.

The Russian leader hoped the meeting would set up a permanent
mechanism to ensure the uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe
via Ukraine.

Russia cut off gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe on Jan. 7, one week
after it halted supplies to Ukraine over the price of Russian gas Kiev
buys.

Russian gas giant Gazprom reopened its taps to Europe on Tuesday
morning under a three-way agreement signed by the EU, Ukraine and
Russia, but no gas reached Europe.

Russia accused Ukraine of blocking the gas flow, while Ukraine argued
that Russia’s choice of the gas route was technically "unacceptable."

Source:Xinhua