Kiev - Ukraine will send Bulgaria and Moldova gas from its own reserves, according to a statement Saturday from the office of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

The two Balkan nations will receive two million cubic metres of gas per day beginning Saturday, according to the statement.

The decision once effective will re-open supplies to Bulgaria and Moldova after a partial Russian cut-off beginning in early January, becoming a total shut-off on Thursday.

Officials in both nations had expressed concern for maintaining gas supplies over the short term to businesses and residences, given relatively small domestic reserves of natural gas.

The Ukrainian gesture was partly a cash-raising measure to take advantage of record-high natural gas prices in Europe, observers said.

But an opening of gas supply to Bulgaria and Moldova at the same time was an overt signal to Russia that Ukraine possesses substantial natural gas reserves of its own, and can ride out even a long-term Russian natural gas boycott.

Ukrainian officials on Friday said Ukraine had amassed natural gas reserves sufficient for the former Soviet republic to maintain normal gas consumption for at least a month, without economy measures.

Some Kiev-based energy specialists have estimated Ukrainian ability to go without Russian gas at as much as four months, given reduced flow to industry and a Ukrainian government decision to tap Russia-owned gas held in Ukrainian underground reservoirs.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a battle of wills over gas supply and pricing. The Kremlin has insisted Ukraine must accept Russian terms, but a Kremlin-ordered gas embargo imposed to pressure Ukraine has also halted all Russian gas deliveries to Europe - a stop costing the Russian natural gas monopolist as much as a billion dollars a week, according to market analysts. (dpa)