Russia tackles EU on energy supplies

By Conor Sweeney and Oleg Shchedrov

KHABAROVSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev challenged EU leaders at a summit on Friday to help Ukraine pay its gas bills in order to prevent disruption of Russian supplies to Europe.

The EU and Russia say they want to build relations after a year dominated by rows. But their summit was overshadowed by bickering on energy supplies, trade and Moscow's worries about an EU drive to build ties with former Soviet states.

Failure by Kiev to pay for its gas could threaten a repeat of a dispute in January that left European Union consumers cut off in midwinter from the Russian gas that normally flows to them through Ukraine.

"We have doubts about Ukraine's ability to pay," Medvedev told a news conference with EU leaders in the city of Khabarovsk, a city 8,000 km (5,000 miles) east of Brussels.

"Let us help syndicate the corresponding money for the Ukrainian state. But this should not be only Russia doing this. At the end of the day, it is not us who have problems with paying," Medvedev said.

"We are ready to help the Ukrainian state but we would like a significant part of that work to be perhaps taken on by the European Union," said Medvedev.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that confidence could be restored but said there should be no more disruption to gas supplies from Russia, which provides more than a quarter of the 27-member bloc's needs.

"Disruption in the export and transport of gas must not be allowed to occur again," Barroso told reporters. "We ask Russia and Ukraine to do everything in their power to prevent another crisis next year."