By Christian Lowe and Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Europe sought a swift restoration of gas supplies on Friday after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a pricing dispute with Kiev.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin confirmed on Friday that Russia had agreed that the monitors -- including representatives from the European Commission, Russia and Ukraine -- should be deployed to ensure the smooth flow of gas.
"Yesterday Putin and (Czech Prime Minister Mirek) Topolanek spoke and in the course of that discussion they came to a common view that a monitoring mission will be formed and despatched," the spokesman said.
Diplomats in Prague said the European monitors would be sent to Ukraine on Friday to be deployed at the main metering stations for gas arriving from Russia.
The monitors agreement "should lead to the Russian supplies of gas to EU member states being restored," the Czech EU presidency said in a statement late on Thursday.
The apparent breakthrough came after talks between Topolanek, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Putin.
But Russian officials have said even once the monitors are in place, it could take many hours and possibly days before gas Russian gas shipped via Ukraine starts reaching Europe again.
The gas is likely to be delivered only to European customers, not Ukraine itself, since Moscow and Kiev have yet to agree a price for Russian gas, subsidised since Soviet times. Putin on Thursday again demanded Ukraine pay the going market rate.
But the presence of monitoring missions at points along the transit routes for Russian gas will reassure Moscow that the gas it is pumping across Ukraine to European customers is not being siphoned off by Kiev.
Moscow cited this allegation -- denied by Kiev -- as its reason for completely shutting off gas flowing across Ukraine to European customers earlier this week.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT GAS
The nine-day gas crisis has left hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans without gas, forced factories to shut down and disrupted deliveries as far west as France and Germany, while the continent faced freezing mid-winter temperatures.
The dispute between Kiev and its former Soviet master also follows tensions over Ukraine's efforts to join NATO, a move bitterly opposed by Moscow and viewed with wariness even by European members of the alliance and by investors.
In typically forthright comments to Western reporters at his residence outside Moscow, Putin blamed the gas crisis in part on a "collapse" of the authorities in Kiev and high-level corruption in Ukraine.
"In order to restore normal flows, (Ukraine) needs to come to Moscow and sign a contract for gas supplies to Ukraine," he said. "And they need to pay for the product they receive. At the market price ... our Ukrainian partners don't want to sign and don't want to pay. That's it."
Ukraine has been beset for months by political squabbling between President Viktor Yushchenko and his former ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, notably over ties with Russia.
Russia cut off gas for Ukraine's domestic consumption on January 1 in a row over pricing and debts, a dispute Putin said was now damaging Russia's image.
Officials from both sides met EU officials in Brussels where the 27-nation bloc sought an end to the spat, which has highlighted its vulnerability to energy supply disruptions.
The European Union receives a quarter of its gas supplies from Russia, 80 percent of which pass through Ukraine.
Supplies to 18 countries have been disrupted by the dragging dispute.
(Writing by Jon Boyle; Editing by Dominic Evans)
