Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom threatened yesterday to more than double gas prices for Georgia from 2007 after high-level talks between the two sides failed to resolve a political crisis.

A Gazprom official said the company wanted Georgia to pay US$230 per 1,000 cubic metres, up from US$110 now. If the price is agreed the impoverished Caucasus nation would have to pay the same for Russian gas as Europe's richest nations.

"This is our proposal. A deal has yet to be reached," the Gazprom official said.

Russia proposed to hike Georgia's gas bill after the two countries' foreign ministers were unable at talks on Wednesday to defuse a crisis in their relations.

The ex-Soviet neighbours are bitterly divided over Tbilisi's drive to join NATO and the European Union, and over Georgian breakaway regions that are allegedly propped up by Moscow.

"I cannot call it (the talks) a breakthrough," Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told a briefing in Moscow after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, late on Wednesday.

"What I would call it is a positive sign that the two countries are ready to sit down and engage in a dialogue. That is good news," said Bezhuashvili, adding that both sides had agreed to "calm down the belligerent rhetoric."

Bezhuashvili met Lavrov on Wednesday in the first high-level contact between Moscow and Tbilisi since relations plunged to their worst in a decade when Georgia arrested and deported four Russian army officers it accused of spying.

Russia hit back by imposing an air, sea and postal blockade on its small southern neighbour, cracking down on Georgian criminal suspects and deporting hundreds of Georgian nationals without proper residency papers.

Bezhuashvili said it came as no surprise that Russia wanted to hike gas export prices, and he urged Moscow to ensure there are no interruptions to Georgia's energy supplies this winter.

"We have got an assurance from the Russian side that gas and electricity will not be cut off," he said. "I do hope there is less politics in these gas prices than commercial (logic). I hope we will get a clear explanation on the pricing formula."

Russia stunned its European customers in January when it turned down the gas taps to Ukraine to press a demand for a price hike, disrupting transit supplies to Europe for the first time in four decades.

Georgia, led since 2004 by pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili, believes Russia is using gas as a weapon to bring the former Soviet state to heel. Gazprom is asking Georgia to pay US$100 per 1,000 cubic metres more than Ukraine.

"I don't know if this price is final but to me it is clear that this is not a market price, this is a political decision," state minister for economic reforms, Kakha Bendukidze, said in Tbilisi.

Source: China Daily