Lithuania and Gazprom talk gas market reform

VILNIUS - Lithuania and senior European Union officials on Monday sat down for talks with the Baltic's only natural gas supplier, Russian giant Gazprom, amid tensions over EU-mandated gas market reforms.

The meeting, held behind closed doors, focused on Lithuania's drive to implement new rules on "unbundling" by the end of 2014, a Lithuanian government statement said late Monday.

The EU competition measures - which bar suppliers from also running the gas-mains system - pose a challenge to Gazprom, which owns 37.1 percent of Lithuania's gas-mains company, Lietuvos Dujos.

Lithuanian officials described as "constructive" talks attended by Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, Gazprom export chief Alexander Medvedev and Philip Lowe, the European Commission's Director-General for Energy.

"It was agreed to meet again by the end of March," the government statement said, without elaborating.

Lithuanian officials earlier hinted Gazprom could remain in Lithuania's gas sector as a "financial investor" after the reforms, if it could secure a "fair" price for Lithuania and the plan was approved by the EU's executive.

A nation of three million, Lithuania is seeking to cut its energy dependence on Russia, a legacy of its five decades as a Soviet republic before the communist bloc collapsed in 1991.

Vilnius joined NATO and the European Union in 2004 and its relations with Moscow are rocky.