Moscow/Brussels/Kiev/Budapest/Prague - Russian natural gas deliveries fell substantially in downstream markets on Saturday, drawing a sharp European Union demand the Kremlin and Ukraine end a row over energy.

Russian natural gas volumes pumped via Ukrainian pipelines to Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania all were down, with Romania registering a 33 per cent cut in deliveries.

Russia on Thursday halted natural gas deliveries to Ukraine because of a delivery contract dispute. Fuel volumes moving onward to Europe fell marginally on Friday.

Budapest/Brussels  - The European Union reported the first impacts of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian gas row on Friday evening as three member states in Central and Eastern Europe reported falling gas pressure in their pipelines.

Pipeline pressure is down in the main pipes leading from Ukraine into EU members Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the Czech Republic's energy envoy, Vaclav Bartuska, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The Czech Republic currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"It is so far only a decrease in pressure. The volumes (being delivered) remain the same ... The Ukrainian side told us that volumes will be down tomorrow (Saturday)," Bartuska said.

Budapest/Brussels - The European Union reported the first impacts of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian gas row on Friday evening as three member states in Central and Eastern Europe reported falling gas pressure in their pipelines.

Pipeline pressure is down in the main pipes leading from Ukraine into EU members Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the Czech Republic's energy envoy, Vaclav Bartuska, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The Czech Republic currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"It is so far only a decrease in pressure. The volumes (being delivered) remain the same ... The Ukrainian side told us that volumes will be down tomorrow (Saturday)," Bartuska said.

Prague - Pressure began to drop Friday in pipelines that supply Russian natural gas to the European Union at the bloc's border with Ukraine, a result of Russia's cut in gas delivery to Ukraine that began Thursday, a Czech energy official said.

"It is so far only a decrease in pressure. The volumes remain the same," Czech Republic's energy envoy Vaclav Bartuska told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. He said that the pipeline pressure was down on Ukraine's border with Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

Budapest - Hungary's minister responsible for energy, Csaba Molnar, said Friday that the pressure in pipelines bringing Russian gas into Hungary from Ukraine had dropped slightly at 4 pm.

This came shortly after Ukraine's gas distributor informed its Hungarian counterpart that it would reduce daily delivery of gas to Hungary from 37 to 32 million cubic metres.

The Hungarian government accused Ukraine of breaking the terms of its supply contract.

With temperatures well below freezing across the country, Hungary is currently burning 66 million cubic metres of natural gas per day, the storage company E. ON said.

Kiev  - Ukraine's government on Friday upped the ante in its natural gas conflict with Russia, informing the Kremlin's ongoing gas shipments to Europe might well be "confiscated."

The absence of a contract between Russia and Ukraine for gas deliveries and transfers onward to Europe makes any gas shipped by Russia into Ukraine technically "of unknown origin," and so subject to confiscation by the Ukrainian government, wrote Oleh Dubina, chairman of Ukraine's Naftogaz Ukrainy gas trading company.