MOSCOW, Dec 15: Russia will sell natural gas to ex-Soviet neighbour Belarus at $119 per thousand cubic metres (tcm) in the first quarter of 2008, 19 per cent more than this year, a spokesman for gas monopoly Gazprom said on Saturday.

Sergei Kuprianov, speaking on Ekho-Moskvy radio station, said tariffs on the transit of Russian gas through Belarus will correspond to a five-year agreement that runs until 2011.

Belarus enjoys the cheapest price among ex-Soviet countries for Russian gas. RIA-Novosti news agency earlier quoted an unnamed Gazprom official as saying the increase from next year was linked exclusively to higher global oil prices.

The ex-Soviet allies clashed last year when Belarus opposed Russian plans to more than double its gas price to $100 per thousand cubic metres in 2007.

The deal was signed only hours before the New Year, but the dispute escalated to include oil in the first days of January 2007 and caused a several-day closure of the Russian pipeline to Germany and Poland, which runs via Belarus.

After meeting on Friday in Minsk, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, said Russia will raise the price for exports of natural gas to Belarus next year in line with existing agreements.—Reuters