MOSCOW, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia will start reviewing its relations with the European Union (EU) if Moscow's interests were ignored, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

    "If Russia's interests are ignored, we will also have to start reviewing the fundamentals of our relations," Putin told reporters in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

    In a declaration signed on Monday by Ukraine, the European Commission as well as three financial institutions, Kiev pledges to carry out reforms to ensure the sustainability, reliability, efficiency and transparency of its gas transit system, including the independence of the gas transit operators.

    The declaration adopted in Brussels by Ukraine and the EU was poorly thought-out and unprofessional, Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

    Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said earlier that Russia had been excluded from talks in Brussels on the modernization of the Ukrainian gas pipelines.

    Russia supplies a quarter of EU's gas needs, with 80 percent of the exports sent through Ukrainian pipelines. The energy supplier cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on Jan. 1 over a pricing dispute, and halted gas deliveries via Ukraine to Europe one week later, leaving millions of Europeans shivering in the depths of winter.

Russia blasts plan to modernize Ukraine's gas transit system

    BRUSSELS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko on Monday blasted a plan of the European Union (EU) and Ukraine to modernize the gas transit system that carries Russian gas to the EU through Ukraine.

    "It is surprising that the text (of a draft declaration) does not make a single reference to Russia as a gas supplier and as a strategic partner for the EU and Ukraine in this field," Shmatko told an international conference on the modernization of Ukraine's gas transit system.   Full story

Ukraine wooes Western investments in upgrading its gas transit system

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko (L Front) and European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner (R Front) sign a joint declaration with the witness of Ukrainian President Victor Youshchenko (L Rear) and President of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso at the international investment conference on the modernization of Ukraine's gas transit system in Brussels, capital of Belgium, March 23, 2009. (Xinhua/Wu Wei) Photo Gallery>>>

    BRUSSELS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday wooed investments from the European Union (EU)and international financial institutions to finance the modernization of its natural gas transit system.

    "Our gas transit system is the most powerful in the world," Tymoshenko told an international investment conference on the modernization of Ukraine's gas transit system in Brussels.  Full story