RIA Novosti quoted Mr Marlene Holzner press secretary of European Commission as saying that Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Greece reached normal levels over the weekend and gas deliveries to Romania, Germany and Italy are rising.

Some European countries said late last week that they faced shortfalls in Russian natural gas supplies amid a severe cold spell across Europe, with temperatures plunging to minus 30 degrees Centigrade.

Mr Holzner said that Russia had cut gas supplies to nine European countries from Wednesday, with the shortfall reaching 30% in Slovakia, Austria and Italy.

Gazprom deputy chairman Mr Andrei Kruglov said that Russia had cut gas deliveries to West Europe by some 10% over the past few days but gas supplies returned to normal levels after that.

At the same time, Italian minister of economic development, infrastructure and transport Mr Corrado Passera said that gas deliveries to Italy were critically low. He added that "The situation is rather critical as Russia and France reduced gas supplies but we control the situation."

Gazprom spokesman Mr Sergei Kupriyanov said that the worst was over. He added that "The situation with gas supplies to the European countries is not critical, we are doing all our best to stabilize deliveries."

Mr Paolo Scaroni CEO of Italy's leading energy company Eni said that but lower Russian gas supplies may lead to difficulties. He added that "We are receiving 25% to 30% less gas from Russia through Ukraine now. This happens as Italy's gas consumption has reached a record 440 million cubic meters used in one day."

According to Italian pipeline operator Snam Rete Gas, the country did not receive 29.6% of contracted volumes last week.

Mr Scaroni added that "We will have no problems until Wednesday but from Thursday we expect a new wave of cold and we do not know how Gazprom will react."

(Sourced from www.rian.ru)