Russia renews threat to curb Ukraine gas supplies

By Tanya Mosolova and Pavel Polityuk

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) threatened on Tuesday to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine from March 3 over payment arrears, two weeks after the two ex-Soviet states agreed on how to settle the problem.

Rows over gas between Ukraine and Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs largely via Ukraine, arouse widespread concern.

One such dispute briefly cut exports to European Union countries in January 2006, but since then the two sides have always reached a deal before any disruption.

The European Commission said it had been assured on Tuesday by Gazprom supplies to the bloc would not be hit.

Gazprom said in a statement it believed that 1.9 billion cubic meters of gas had gone missing and were now considered Ukrainian debt. The gas firm earlier this month threatened to reduce supplies to Ukraine over payment arrears of $1.5 billion.

"This cannot go on. If the problems are not settled, to uphold its economic interests in view of (Ukraine's) failure to pay for gas, Gazprom will from 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) March 3 cut gas supplies to Ukrainian consumers by 25 percent," it said.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's office said that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had warned him by telephone that Gazprom could start cutting supplies as early as Wednesday.

"President V. Putin stated that the payments made so far for gas consumed are clearly unequal to the whole debt and cannot be sufficient for further uninterrupted gas supplies to Ukraine," the president's secretariat in Kiev said in a statement.