Sofia - The Ukraine has begun delivering gas again to Moldavia and Bulgaria, in fulfilling a pledge Kiev had made, Bulgarian Economics and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said Saturday.

Dimitrov said he had received information from a centre in charge of monitoring gas distribution in the Balkan region about the resumption of gas deliveries, which are coming from Ukraine's own reserves.

Earlier, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko in a telephone call with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov had promised to supply gas from Ukraine's own reserves, with Kiev aiming to supply Bulgaria with 2.5 million cubic metres per day.

Belgrade/Sofia - Gas shortages triggered by the Russia- Ukraine row over payments have left tens of thousands of families in Serbia and Bulgaria without the ability to heat their homes at a time of freezing cold.

While most Serbian plants have switched or were in the process of switching from natural gas to oil, some - as in the cities of Novi Sad and Pancevo, servicing some
120,000 people - have shut down as gas supplies were exhausted, reports said.

Sofia - Hit hard by the Russia-Ukraine gas row, Bulgaria on Tuesday stepped up the pressure for permission to re-start its old nuclear reactors, shut down in 2006 amid European safety concerns.

"We must prepare without delay to re-start the third reactor at Kosloduy," President Georgi Parvanov said. Bulgaria shut down two 440-megawatt, Soviet-era reactors shortly before it joined the European Union in 2007, meeting Brussels' demands.

Two even older reactors were turned off in 2002.

Parvanov said the accession contract with the EU allows Bulgaria to revive the two newer reactors in case of a crisis.

Sofia - The row between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas deliveries hit the Balkans hard Tuesday, with Bulgaria and Croatia reporting a total supply stoppage and Romania a two-thirds drop.

The Bulgarian supplier Bulgargaz said delivery was terminated at Ukraine's border with Romania in the early morning, which also affected the transit of gas to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia.

The Bulgarian government was in an emergency session to discuss the crisis, as supplies may last only a few days.

Sofia - The flow of Russi

Sofia - Former ice-skating world champion Maxim Staviiski is to spend 2.5 years in prison after an appeals court Monday overturned a lighter, suspended sentence handed to him for a deadly traffic accident he caused 16 months ago.

The court in the Black Sea port of Burgas said Staviiski must serve time for driving his massive jeep into another car in August 2007, killing a 24-year old man and gravely injuring an 18-year old girl, who remains in a coma and in a hospital in Israel.