Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom will file a suit against the Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz Ukrainy on the allegedly gas-transit shortage to Europe amid rows over price, local media reported on Saturday.

"Gazprom asks the Court of Arbitration in Stockholm to take within a maximally short period of time measures forbidding Naftogaz Ukrainy to make any moves aimed at the reduction of transit of Russian gas to Europe," Itar-Tass cited Gazprom sources as saying.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has approved the decision, said Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller who noted that the planned suit was based on a 10-year contract on volumes of and terms for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine that came into force in 2003.

Some European Union countries, such as Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Hungary, said that gas supplies from Russia through pipelines in Ukraine have dropped since Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1 due to failure of price talks.

Naftogaz Ukrainy, however, said that the fall of gas supplies to Romania, which suffers the most, was caused by "technical reasons."

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2009)