PARIS, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- French gas utility, Gaz de France (GDF), announced Tuesday that its supplies from Russia returned to normal after having fallen up to 30 percent on Monday.

   "During the recent days, gas supplies in France have never been disrupted," the group said in a statement.

   The group said on Monday that it had taken all the measures to cope with any shortage in gas supplies when the Russian gas company Gazprom moved to cut supplies of gas to Ukraine in a pricing dispute with resulting disruption to supplies to several European countries.

   Supplies from Russia represent 24 percent of the GDF's total imports, with the rest coming from Algeria, Norway, Holland and Nigeria, according to the group.

   Russian gas giant Gazprom cut down natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Sunday after Kiev rejected Russia's demand to more than quadruple the price.

   Many European countries including Austria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, which rely heavily on Russian gas from the pipelines that cross Ukraine, had reported a sharp drop in their supplies and supplies of Russian gas have already returned to normal in Hungary, Austria and Germany. Enditem