MINSK, Feb 19: Russia turned the gas taps back on Thursday after Belarus backed down in a major diplomatic row that saw Minsk recall its ambassador and sparked protests from other countries deprived of energy supplies.

Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom halted all of its gas supplies to Belarus on Wednesday, including deliveries destined for central and western Europe, accusing the impoverished former Soviet republic of siphoning off transit gas.

Just under 24 hours later, Gazprom said in a statement that its pipeline to Belarus had resumed transportation of gas after an independent producer signed a temporary supply contract with Minsk lasting until the end of February.

A Gazprom spokesman cautioned that the underlying dispute remained unresolved. "This contract signed today is just another half-measure which cannot guarantee stable, long-term supplies to Belarus," the spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov, said in televised comments. However, the Belarusian gas pipeline operator said Minsk was ready to pay higher prices for gas demanded by Moscow as Russian officials said talks on granting credits to Belarus to pay for future energy supplies could start next week.

"The president said today that he is willing to pay 50 dollars," the price that Russia is asking for, a spokeswoman for Beltransgaz, Taisiya Borodich told AFP.

The Belarusian government had issued a stinging denunciation of the Russian gas suspension, branding it as "flagrant blackmail and an unprecedented form of pressure on the Belarus people." "Such an act, which deprived people of gas in winter when the temperature is almost minus 20, is without precedent since the Great Patriotic War (World War II)," a government statement said.

Belarus reduced by half energy supplies to enterprises and households across the country as experts quoted in the Russian press said Belarus had only enough supplies of gas to last it around 10 days.

President Alexander Lukashenko said in a televized address that Belarus would have to strike a deal "on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's terms" even if this meant taking money away from social needs. But he accused Russia of trying to grab his country's main economic assets and vowed: "If they think in Moscow that the Belarus people will bow down, they're wrong."

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov later condemned Lukashenko's remarks, saying that the Belarusian leader had opted for confrontation with Moscow. "These shocking statements by President Alexander Lukashenko show that he has taken the road of confrontation with Russia, ignoring the interests of the people of Belarus," Ivanov said in a statement.

He accused Lukashenko of artificially politicizing the affair and of attempting to blame Russia for the consequences of "his profound errors in the domestic and foreign policy of the country ...which have already led to the isolation of Belarus on the international scene."

The two sides have been sparring over delivery terms for months but the dispute is also about Russian efforts to take control of the pipeline network in Belarus. -AFP