BBC NEWS EU warns of legal action over gas The European Commission has warned Russian and Ukrainian gas companies of legal action over a dispute which has left many Europeans without heat. Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he would advise EU energy companies to sue unless Gazprom and Naftogaz move fast to restore supplies. Diplomatic pressure is growing, with the Bulgarian, Slovak and Moldovan PMs holding talks in Moscow and Kiev. Supplies remain cut off because of a payment row between Russia and Ukraine. 'Matter of urgency' Mr Barroso told the European Parliament the dispute between the Ukraine and Russia was "most unacceptable and incredible". He said if agreements, sponsored by the European Union, are not observed "as a matter of urgency", he will advise energy companies that have deals with Gazprom and Naftogaz, to file lawsuits against them. "If the agreement is not honoured, it means that Russia and Ukraine can no longer be regarded as reliable," he said. MEPs are due to debate the situation later on Wednesday. Gas flowed from Russia to Ukraine on Tuesday, but Kiev said it was technically unable to pass it on to its neighbours. Eighteen other European countries have been affected by the gas supply row. Hundreds of thousands of people are still without heating in eastern and south-eastern Europe after Moscow stopped supplies routed through Ukraine last week. Bulgaria has had to close schools and other public buildings, due to the cuts. In Kiev, Slovakia's prime minister told his Ukrainian counterpart his country had 11 days of gas reserves left before it would be forced to resort to what he called "measures never seen in the history of Slovakia". "May I simply ask how long this will go on?" Robert Fico asked Yulia Tymoshenko He also asked the Ukrainian prime minister if Kiev could supply Slovakia with gas from its own reserves, until the flow of Russian gas resumed. But Ms Tymoshenko said Ukraine did not have enough gas to spare. Mr Fico then moved to Moscow, to join the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Moldova for a meeting with the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. Slovakia and the Baltic states are entirely dependent on gas from Russia. Meanwhile, Polish president Lech Kaczynski, whose country also relies entirely on Russia for its gas, will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko. Despite optimism on Tuesday that the dispute was nearing an end, the flow of gas was brief - and resulted in increasingly antagonistic rhetoric from both sides. Technical arguments An agreement, brokered late on Monday by the Czech prime minister, to allow international experts to monitor the flow of gas through Ukraine, was designed to overcome the deep feeling of mistrust between the two former Soviet neighbours. Russian switched on the gas supply to Ukraine at the Sudzha pumping station on Tuesday morning in what Moscow officials described as a test delivery. But Ukraine said it could not physically pump the gas to Europe in the volumes Russia was currently providing, or along the pipeline route Moscow wanted it to take. Russian energy giant Gazprom dismissed that claim. The arguments are hugely technical, but the fact is they cannot both be right, says the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Kiev. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=84017/stime=1231940739/nc1=3848627/nc2=3848641/nc3=5349275> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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