国际英语新闻：Reports: Gas crisis summit to be held in Moscow

MOSCOW, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Ukraine will hold a summit here on Saturday in a bid to end the current gas dispute, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday.

    "Invitations are being sent to heads of state and governments of European countries that consume and transit Russian gas," Natalya Timakova, the Russian president's press secretary, was quoted by RIA Novosti and Interfax as saying.

    The Russian prime minister's spokesman had earlier confirmed that the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers will meet on Saturday to discuss the shipment of Russian gas to Europe.

    "The prime ministers agreed to hold a working meeting in Moscow on Jan. 17 to discuss steps to take," spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed holding a summit of Russian gas importers in Europe on Wednesday at a meeting with the prime ministers of Slovakia, Moldova and Bulgaria.

    Russia cut off gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe on Jan. 7, one week after it halted pumping gas to Ukraine over a pricing dispute.

    Russian energy giant Gazprom reopened its pipelines to Europe on Tuesday morning under a three-way agreement signed by the European Union (EU), Ukraine and Russia, but no gas reached Europe.

    Russia accused Ukraine of blocking the gas flow and the EU also admitted that Ukraine had held up the flow to Europe, while Ukraine argued that Russia's choice of the gas route was technically "unacceptable."

    As much as a quarter of natural gas consumed in Europe is imported from Russia, and 80 percent of it is shipped via Ukraine.