Moscow  - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped gas transits to Europe would be resumed in "the next few days," but offered no immediate solution to the crisis Saturday.

Medvedev said talks "are continuing" on resolving the Russian-Ukrainian deadlock and would now be taken up in a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.

But he accused Ukraine of dragging its feet in talks.

"I have felt that our Ukrainian colleagues are not in a rush to enter these negotiations ... but the longer we drag out talks, the more problems will build up in our relations," Medvedev was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

Bilateral talks were set to start immediately after the crisis summit the Kremlin hosted in Moscow with a number of nations suffering from the week-long fuel embargo.

For his part, the Russian president said the summit had focused on the creation of an "effective international mechanism" to prevent future disputes over European gas transits.

Experts have said it could take up to three days for renewed gas transits to reach Europe.

Along with Tymoshenko, attending the talks in Moscow was the EU's Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, the prime ministers of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia as well as officials from Slovakia, Turkey and the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Some Western European leaders however declined Moscow's invitation.

The talks Saturday are the highest-level meetings between the various parties sides since Russia first reduced gas flows on January 1, after failing to sign a 2009 gas contract, and on January 7 closed the taps altogether, accusing Kiev of stealing gas meant for Europe.

The European Union, which depends on Russia for one-quarter of its gas supplies, has threatened to seek other suppliers if what it insisted was a "bilateral row" was not immediately resolved. dpa