The European Union welcomed Russia's face-saving deal with Ukraine on gas supplies today, but said it still wanted to discuss the security of Europe's gas supplies, Austria's economy minister said.
"We will still talk about security of gas supplies in Europe and also about the Russian situation, " Martin Bartenstein told reporters before a meeting of EU member state energy experts.
"We would like to hear what the member states have to say about storage. It is still a big issue although less urgent," he said. Austria is chairing the meeting as current EU president.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine will attend the meeting.
In the early hours of today, Russia and Ukraine struck a five-year deal in a bitter dispute which hit Europe's gas supplies for two days and cast doubt on Moscow's reliability as a secure supply source.
"This is good news for the European Union ... we are glad that they reached the deal last night when most may have not expected it. So we are very satisfied," Mr Bartenstein said.
Mr Bartenstein is due to hold a news conference with EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs at 11.30am on the European gas situation. Earlier this week, he said the EU expects to set up a "community solidarity mechanism" to cope with gas disruptions.