Budapest - Hungary is to supply natural gas to Bosnia- Herzegovina and Croatia, Energy Minister Csaba Molnar said Saturday.

The Hungarian energy company MOL had joined forces with the German E. ON Ruhrgas in response to the "extremely serious gas crisis that has developed in the Balkans," he told reporters.

MOL and E. ON were jointly supplying 4 to 4.5 million cubic metres of gas to Serbia and 1 to 1.5 million cubic metres to Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Molnar added that 1 million cubic metres of gas from Hungarian and German sources was being pumped into Croatia.

"Hungary will immediately withdraw from these transit contracts in the event that domestic gas supply is jeopardised," Molnar said.

Hungary is tapping its underground reserves at a maximum rate of 53 million cubic metres a day, while peak domestic production supplies a further 9 million cubic metres, FGSZ spokeswoman Edina Lakatos said. About 4 million cubic metres came in from Austria on Friday, she added.

No gas has arrived in Hungary from from Ukraine since Tuesday, when deliveries across the Russia-Ukraine border were stopped amid a row over pricing and Russia accusing Ukraine of stealing gas from transit pipelines. (dpa)