By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - The two top gas executives from Russia and Ukraine held talks in Moscow Thursday, in the first face-to-face contact since their row choked off supplies to EU countries in bitter winter weather.
There was no immediate word on the outcome of the talks, but further urgent diplomacy was planned in Brussels where delegations from Kiev and Moscow were to meet officials from a European Union increasingly concerned at the gas cut-offs.
"We need to resume the gas flows in Europe. We can't be blackmailed," Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, whose country holds the EU presidency, said in Prague.
Russia's state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom fully suspended supplies of transit gas towards Ukraine Wednesday, saying there was no longer any point delivering the gas because Kiev had shut down the pipelines.
Ukraine -- whose pro-Western leaders have clashed with the Kremlin over their drive to join NATO -- said Russia was deliberately starving Europe of gas. Russia cut off gas for Ukraine's domestic consumption on New Year's Day.
The row over gas prices and debts owed by Ukraine to Russia hit supplies as far west as France and Germany as Europe faced freezing mid-winter temperatures.
In Bulgaria, one of the worst affected countries, at least 45,000 households were without central heating Wednesday. Schools were shut and some companies were closed. Temperatures in Sofia fell to minus 14 degrees Celsius overnight.
Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Oleh Dubyna, head of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, met overnight in Moscow, a Gazprom official told Reuters. The official declined to give any details.
Miller and Dubyna were expected to meet again in Brussels on Thursday when they hold talks with European Energy Commission Andris Piebalgs and Czech Trade and Industry Minister Martin Riman, representing the Czech EU presidency. Gazprom said Miller would meet European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso.
Against a backdrop of mounting pressure from European countries on both Kiev and Moscow to get gas flowing again, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke by telephone late on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
Medvedev told his Ukrainian counterpart gas supplies had become hostage to squabbling in the Kiev leadership and that Moscow would only resume pumping gas for Ukraine's own use if Kiev agreed to pay a market price for the fuel.
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
Gazprom said it was increasing supplies to the European Union and Turkey via other routes. Despite those measures, the dispute cut Russia's supplies to Europe -- which depends on Moscow for a quarter of its gas supplies -- by half.
The reduction in supplies has been sharper and more prolonged than a similar disruption in January 2006.
Production at three Turkish power stations was halted, an energy minister source said Thursday, though he said it would not create a power supply problem.
The euro zone's major economies have escaped significant economic repercussions, but France has reported a drop in supplies and an Italian industry ministry spokesman said Italy has begun tapping its stockpiles of natural gas.
A total of 18 countries were experiencing supply disruptions. Most were drawing on alternative sources or using stockpiled gas, but with the row in its eighth day, those reserves were dwindling.
Eastern and Central Europe have borne the brunt of the row. Bulgaria cut back or suspended supplies to industrial users and Slovakia declared a state of emergency after a complete halt in supplies from Russia.
Czech and Slovak and Slovenian energy firms said Thursday supplies from Russia through Ukraine were still at a standstill.
(Additional reporting by James Kilner in Moscow and European bureaux; writing by Ralph Boulton and Christian Lowe; editing by Dominic Evans and Philippa Fletcher)
