'Once the monitors are deployed and they have access, we will immediately resume gas supplies,' he told journalists at the European Parliament in Brussels.

He said that he had given European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso a 'protocol' for deploying the monitors at a meeting and hoped that it would be 'examined quickly and adopted'.

Meanwhile, European Union energy ministers will hold emergency talks on the Russia-Ukraine gas standoff next week and discuss what steps might be taken to improve supply security, an EU statement said on Thursday.

'A special energy council will take place on 12 January in order to look at the situation on the energy market, including monitoring, and to discuss the concrete measures to be taken,' the Czech EU presidency said. -- AFP