The Czech EU presidency handed over a signed deal on gas monitors to the Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Brussels in the early afternoon on Sunday, a presidency spokesman said countering Russian claims that Moscow had yet to receive the signed deal, according to dpa. "All parties have it in their hands since 1 pm (1200 GMT)," presidency spokesman Jiri Potuznik told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Russia said it would open gas taps as soon as the deal is signed by all parties and observers are in their place. "Premier Putin clearly said that gas will flow at the moment when ... everyone signs, which happened, and observers will be at their sites, which will take place immediately after they receive the signed agreement by fax," said Czech Trade and Industry Minister Martin Riman, who was present during talks in Moscow. European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, who was the last official required to sign the deal after Russian and Ukrainian vice- premiers had done so earlier, inked the deal before noon on Sunday, Potuznik said. But Russian and Gazprom officials insisted in late afternoon that they have yet to receive a copy of the signed deal, which allows international observers to monitor Russian gas flows via Ukraine. In another condition, Russia asked that observers would be at their sites before Gazprom opened the taps. A spokesman for leading Czech gas importer RWE Transgas said that the firm's expert with the EU mission should reach his monitoring site "in the evening hours." Topolanek said that "if everything goes well," the monitoring teams could be deployed on Sunday. The European Commission-led mission, which includes Russian and Ukrainian observers, also includes experts from non-EU member Norway, a smaller gas supplier to EU members, a Czech official said. Brussels praised Topolanek's efforts to hammer out a gas monitoring deal between Moscow and Kiev. "We now need the gas to flow immediately to the EU. There are many EU citizens at risk without gas supply, and this situation has gone on for far too long," the commission's President Jose Manuel Barroso said. Russia shut down gas deliveries via Ukraine five days ago in a move that left parts of central and south-eastern Europe without enough gas for industries and heating in the height of winter. "The countries in the Balkans are having very serious - I would say - irresolvable problems," Topolanek said. It would take 36 hours for Russian gas to reach the EU border with Ukraine once Gazprom opens the taps, experts have said.
