PARIS, Jan. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, said here on Monday that both Russia and Ukraine, in a gas dispute, should pay their energy at the market price.

    One of the stakes of this price dispute is "the waste of energyin Russia and Ukraine of today...These countries should pay their energy at the price of today's energy to improve the efficiency of their economy," said Lamy at the French news channel LCI.

    "Russia and Ukraine are candidates for the entry to the WTO and their dispute would be easy to understand and tackle if they are both members of this organization," said Lamy.

    Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom halted sales to Ukraine on Sunday, which led to a fall in pressure in all the pipelines and limit the overall supply of gas to Ukraine and Europe.

    Gasprom had asked Ukraine to pay quadruple the amount it previously paid for Russiasn gas, which accounts for about a third of the consumption in the country.

    Gasprom supplies about one-quarter of the gas consumed in Europe, most of which goes through pipes that cross Ukraine. Enditem