Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder privately urged senior Russian officials to settle their dispute with Ukraine over natural gas prices last week, a German news magazine reported Saturday.

Der Spiegel quoted associates of Schroeder as saying that the former leader phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller to urge them for a compromise.

Schroeder's office in Berlin declined comments on this.

Russia cut off gas supply to Ukraine on Jan. 1 because the latter refuse to pay a five-fold high price for the natural gas Russia has pumped to it, but the two sides forged a agreement three days later.

Before Russia's state-run Gazprom moved to stop gas supply to Kiev, some German officials mentioned that Schroeder should help mediate the dispute, for fear that the cut-off would affect German imports of natural gas, but Schroeder's office said the former leader would not comment or received any interviews on the matter.

Schroeder has been nominated chairman of the board of the Northern European Gas Pipeline company to oversee the construction of a new underwater pipeline that runs from Russia directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea.

Source: Xinhua