MOSCOW, Dec 30: Russia said on Saturday it planned to send experts to supervise the pipeline carrying its gas to Belarus and warned of a “critical scenario” in the row over pricing between the two neighbours.

The warning came as the two countries staged last-ditch talks on resolving their dispute that risks disrupting energy supplies to the European Union from New Year's Day.

“We cannot deliver gas (to Belarus) without a contract,” Sergei Kupryanov, spokesman for the Russian gas giant Gazprom, said, according to Russian news agencies.

That is why our observers are going to the pipeline ... to monitor” the situation.

“We also have independent international experts to monitor the volume of gas transiting through the territory of Belarus,” Kupryanov said.

“The way the talks are developing pushes us to prepare for a critical scenario.”

Gazprom did not say what the nationality of the observers would be but Russia often uses the term international to denote nationals of former Soviet republics.

Gazprom threatens to cut off Belarus’s natural gas supply at 0700 GMT Monday if the ex-Soviet republic refuses to accept a steep price increase, prompting fears that 2007 will start in freezing conditions for many of its 10 million people.

The government in Minsk says that in retaliation it could refuse transit of Russian gas across its territory to western Europe, potentially causing shortfalls for EU members including Germany, Lithuania and Poland.

Talks ended in tension late Friday after Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, speaking in Minsk, accused Gazprom of blackmail.

Kupryanov said on Saturday that little progress was possible as long as Belarus’s first deputy premier, Vladimir Semashko, did not join the negotiations.

“We do not expect any breakthrough from these meetings until the main negotiator arrives in Moscow,” Kupriyanov said in a statement.

However, Semashko was waiting for Gazprom to reply to a letter detailing Belarus’s latest position before coming to Moscow, government spokesman Alexander Timoshenko told AFP.

“If the Belarussian side receives a positive answer to this letter, Semashko can fly to Moscow at any time,” Timoshenko said.

Gazprom wants to end Soviet-era subsidies to Belarus, as well as to a string of other ex-Soviet republics, arguing that more than doubling the current price for gas paid by Belarus would bring fees in line with market export rates.

Lukashenko on Friday repeated the argument that Belarus, which is joined to Russia in a loose economic and political union, should pay no more than a normal Russian region.

In another sign of deteriorating relations between the two neighbours, Belarus’s state oil firm Belneftekhim announced suspension of contracts with Russian oil companies in 2007, blaming new Russian export duties.

The duties are to take effect from the start of 2007, hitting Belarus’s trade in refining Russian crude oil for sale in western Europe, Belneftekhim chairman Alexander Borovsky told state television.

The growing threat of energy war between Russia and Belarus could spell difficulties for Lukashenko, an autocratic ruler who runs a Soviet-style economy largely based on Russian subsidies, analysts say.

Currently, Belarus pays $46.68 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.

Gazprom originally demanded an increase to $200, which is closer to western European prices, unless Belarus agreed to sell 50 per cent of its domestic pipeline operator Beltransgaz.

Gazprom is now offering a contract charging $105 per 1,000 cubic meters -- $75 per 1,000 cubic meters in cash payments, plus the equivalent of another $30 in shares of Beltransgaz.

Under the deal, Gazprom would become joint owner of Beltransgaz, strengthening the Russian energy giant’s strategic grip across the ex-Soviet Union.

The conflict echoes last year’s winter price war between Russia and Ukraine over the supply and cost of gas which led to shortages in western Europe.

However, only 20 per cent of Russia’s gas exports transit via Belarus, compared to 80 per cent through Ukraine. Demand was also higher 12 months ago when Europe was in the grip of one of the coldest winters on record, compared to the unusually mild season so far this year.—AFP