ROME, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Italy has sufficient gas to get through the winter, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said Thursday.

    "The situation is a delicate one but there is no reason for alarm for Italy," Scajola said after chairing a meeting of the ministry's emergency gas task force, set up after Russia abruptly cut off supplies to Europe.

    The minister said that "we are better today than we were during the winter of 2005-2006" when Moscow and Kiev engaged in a similarrow. "We have gas reserves for two months at the current climate conditions."

    "Russian gas is without doubt important for our economy and should it not arrive over a long period of time it would create a problem. But it is in Russia's interest to sell its gas and thus it will resolve this problem," Scajola said.

    He added that the country's energy giant ENI will join a European effort to supply gas to Slovenia, which is totally dependent on Russian gas and has insufficient reserves.

    Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after the two countries failed to reach an agreement on gas prices and transit fees for 2009, which immediately resulted in disruptions of transit supplies to EU member states.