KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine hopes to hold a new round of talks with the European Commission and Russia about natural gas supplies at the end of August in Vienna, Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said on Monday.
The European Commission - the EU executive - has been mediating in a gas pricing dispute between Russia and Ukraine, an important transit route for gas to the European Union, for more than a year.
"Our talks with the European Commission will definitely take place on (Aug) 27-28 and we hope the Russians will join," Demchyshyn said.
The Commission said it could not confirm any dates, but expected preparatory talks to take place that could lead to the trilateral negotiations at ministerial level needed for any breakthrough.
"A technical level trilateral meeting is foreseen mid-August," spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said.
Kiev and Moscow reached an interim accord last year for supplies over the winter period.
However Ukraine suspended gas imports from Russia in July due to a price dispute, leaving it dependent on its own output and European imports.
Demchyshyn said he expected the price Ukraine pays for gas from Europe to be around $250 per 1,000 cubic metres in the next two quarters.
Europe relies on Russia for about a third of its gas, almost half of which is piped via Ukraine. Gas transit to Europe has been unaffected by Kiev's decision to stop taking Russian gas last month.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in Brussels; writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Jason Neely and Susan Thomas)
