The European Union said on Saturday it was expecting Russia to resume its gas deliveries to Europe at the ongoing Moscow summit, ending its gas dispute with Ukraine.
"We expected both parties to announce that they had reached an agreement on the resumption of Russian gas supply to the EU via Ukraine. This was not the case," the EU rotating presidency of the Czech Republic said in a statement, quoting Czech industry and trade minister Martin Riman.
"The positive development is that both parties were able to sit together at one table and finally negotiate once again," Riman said.
"Talks between Russia and Ukraine are to go on tonight. We expect them to lead to a resumption of gas deliveries," he added.
Riman, along with European energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, represented the EU at the summit.
The European Commission has said it would review its relations with both Russia and Ukraine if the two failed to resolve their dispute this weekend.
The summit gathered leaders of Russia, Ukraine, EU and other countries to the Kremlin on Saturday in a new push to resolve the current gas row that has left millions of Europeans without heating in the depths of winter for more than a week.
Russia cut off gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe on Jan. 7, one week after it halted supplies to Ukraine.
Russian gas giant Gazprom reopened its taps to Europe on Tuesday morning under a three-way agreement signed by the EU, Ukraine and Russia, but no gas reached Europe.
(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2009)