Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz have made no progress on an agreement over two billion dollars in non-payments for imports by Kiev ahead of a New Year's deadline for gas cuts, a spokesman for Gazprom said Wednesday, according to dpa. Ukrainian officials arrived in Moscow for another round of talks on Wednesday amid the standoff, which has sparked fears among European consumers of supply shortages. Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom supplies about one quarter of the European Union's gas needs, 80 per cent of which is shipped through Ukraine. In a similar dispute in 2006, Russia blamed Kiev for siphoning off gas to European customers - sparking fuel shortages and a price spike as far as Paris. Gazprom threatened last week to cut gas supplies to the former Soviet state on January 1 if the debt remains unsettled. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Wednesday that Kiev and Mosocw had agreed to delay the debt settlement until early next year. He added that Ukraine could perhaps give back the gas it cannot afford. But Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov denied that an accord had been reached. "So the question is far nowhere near being settled, as Kiev declared," Kupriyanov was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying. "Under the contract, Ukraine's Naftogaz must pay for all received gas by the end of the month's consumption. "Gas for November is unpaid. Payment for December, we have also not seen. And the Ukrainian side has yet to propose any real way out of the problem," he said. Gazprom alerted clients and European Union member-states of possible disruptions to supplies in a letter of warning on Monday. Yushchenko pledged Wednesday that Ukraine could guarantee continued deliveries of Russian gas to the West. Naftogaz in turn pledged its gas reserves would be enough to last through the winter. Gazprom claims Ukraine has paid only 800 million in arrears of its total debt, and analysts say the country's crushing economic problems makes reimbursing of more of the debt difficult. Ukraine has begged a 16.4 billion dollars loan from the International Monetary Fund, but conditions applied to the money means it cannot directly be used pay for Russian gas arrears.
