UPDATE 1-Bulgaria seeks EU aid to ease Russia gas dependence

(Updates with PM, adds details, paragraphs 7-10)

SOFIA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Bulgaria will ask the European Union on Monday to provide some 400 million euros ($535.7 million) in aid to help the Balkan country ease its dependence on its sole gas supplier, Russia, the economy ministry said.

Bulgaria wants to expand its sole gas storage facility and build pipeline links to neighbouring Greece and Romania quickly after a cut-off in Russian gas supplies left tens of thousands of homes without heating and forced some factories to shut down.

Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov will raise the Balkan country's request for financial help at Monday's meeting of the EU energy ministers in Brussels, the ministry said in a statement.

Former communist eastern Europe has so far done little to reduce reliance on its former Soviet master, Russia, and on single supply routes. Some, like Serbia and Bosnia, not only depend fully on Russia, but have no gas reserves either.

As a result, countries in the region are the worst hit in the Moscow-Kiev gas price dispute which has cut flows to Europe. (For a factbox on affected countries and their reliance, click on [nL546299]).

The disruption is exacerbated by a lack of pipeline links between countries in eastern Europe, outdated Soviet-era grid infrastructure, transmission losses and high energy intensity. (For east Europe analysis, see [nL8408013]).

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told parliament Bulgaria needed 125 million euros in EU aid to quickly build a 115-km stretch to an existing Turkey-Greece pipeline that would allow it to eventually import an agreed 1 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas a year.

Bulgaria also wants to build four separate stretches in the north to link its network with that of Romania, he said.