EU Calls Meeting On Russia-Ukraine Gas Crisis

European states started suffering from reduced Russian gas supplies on Friday while Moscow accused Kiev of stealing transit gas.

The Czech presidency of the European Union has called an extraordinary meeting of envoys from the 27-nation bloc for Monday to discuss the Russia- Ukraine gas crisis, a presidency spokesman said on Friday.

European states started suffering from reduced Russian gas supplies on Friday while Moscow accused Kiev of stealing transit gas a day after deliveries to Ukraine were cut in a contract dispute.

"We feel that the situation has now escalated to a point that substantiates an extraordinary meeting," spokesman Radek Honzak said.

Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom <GAZP.MM> said some countries in the Balkans had told it they were getting less gas than they had asked for and gas importers in Hungary and Poland said pressure on their pipelines had dropped.

The EU meeting will be held at deputy ambassador level at 1430 CET (1330 GMT) in Brussels, Honzak said.

He said the aim of the meeting was to exchange information on gas needs of member states and on the dispute, as well as to coordinate a response. He said the presidency met with the Ukrainian side on Friday and will speak to Gazprom on Saturday.

"We are urging them to find a solution to the commercial dispute before the supply to the EU is affected," Honzak said.

Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz denied it was illegally siphoning off Russian gas.

Gazprom accused Ukraine of stealing relatively small volumes of transit gas, an accusation that suggested Moscow was in no mood for compromise in a re-run of a 2006 argument that led to gas shortages across the EU.