EU: Progress in Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute

Europe's Energy Commissioner said on Monday progress had been made in the gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine after he held talks with Russia's energy minister and a senior representative of Gazprom.

"We have in the last few days made progress on a number of issues but we still have no agreement," said Guenther Oettinger, also reiterating that the next round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU would take place on May 26.

He said that prices for the period from November to March were cleared up but that they were still working on prices for April, May and June. He added that aid packages from the International Monetary Fund and European Union could be used to pay for past and future gas deliveries.

Reporting by Markus Wacket and Michael Nienaber