Belarus First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko arrived in Moscow on Sunday for the eleventh-hour negotiations with Russian gas giant Gazprom on the price Belarus pays for gas supplies next year, Russian news agencies reported.

Semashko told a news conference in Minsk late Saturday that Belarus and Gazprom had reached an agreement on gas deliveries at 100 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters from Jan. 1, 2007.

But Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying on Sunday that there was "no contract at the present time" although telephone talks and exchanges of fax messages continued until midnight Saturday.

Semashko flew to Moscow as a threatened gas cutoff for Belarus loomed large. Gazprom has warned it would cut off supplies to the country on 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Jan. 1, if no deal was reached by New Year's Day.

Belarus buys gas from Russia at 46.7 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters this year. Gazprom is demanding Belarus pay 105 dollars next year, with 75 dollars in cash and 30 dollars in shares in the country's gas transport company Beltransgaz.

Source: Xinhua