Bratislava  - Slovakia was looking to get up to 10 million cubic metres of gas a day from European sources as the cut-off of Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine continued, an official said Friday.

Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek told reporters that the country was evaluating technical ways how to bring in gas from Poland as well as from storages of firms Gaz de France, E. ON and OMV.

The Czech gas importer RWE Transgas said Friday that some of this gas for Slovakia was waiting at the Czech-German border. The firm said that it plans to swap the shipment for its underground reserves located in Slovakia.

"Some 2 million cubic metres of natural gas should be at Slovak customers' disposal tomorrow morning," the company said in a statement.

Slovakia is fully dependent on Russian gas supplies arriving via Ukraine. The country's gas importer and distributer SPP has tapped underground reserves to supply households, schools and hospitals.

However, the distributor is unable to extract enough gas from its storages and had to ask 1,000 manufacturers to limit consumption to a minimum.

Several large firms, including carmakers who fuel the country's export-driven economy, halted or limited production. Prime Minister Robert Fico Thursday called the country's situation the "most critical" in central Europe. (dpa)