Kiev  - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Friday as part of an European Union diplomatic offensive to end a Russian natural gas embargo.

The Czech Republic holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

Yushchenko and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in a rare show of public solidarity, jointly met Toplanek at Kiev's Boryspil airport.

New Delhi - More than 70 per cent of India's petrol stations ran out of fuel and airline flights were delayed as a strike by over 50,000 state oil officials demanding higher pay entered its third day Friday, officials and news reports said.

Long queues stretched outside petrol pumps in the national capital New Delhi and metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai that were rationing fuel. Few taxi services operated.

New Delhi - More than 70 per cent of India's petrol stations ran out of fuel and airline flights were delayed as a strike by over 50,000 state oil officials demanding higher pay entered its third day Friday, officials and news reports said.

Long queues stretched outside petrol pumps in the national capital New Delhi and metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai that were rationing fuel. Few taxi services operated.

Brussels - Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the details of a monitoring mission designed to ensure that Russian gas destined for the European Union is not siphoned off as it travels through Ukrainian pipelines, officials in Brussels said Friday.

"There is now agreement on the details of the monitoring mission," the European Commission said in a statement.

"It is now imperative that the gas starts to flow to the European Union without any further delay," the EU's executive arm said.

The breakthrough came after overnight discussions brokered by the EU saw Russian and Ukrainian authorities accept to host both EU monitors and experts from their neighbouring country, officials in Brussels said.

Brussels  - Russian gas monopolist Gazprom refused on Thursday to renew gas supplies to Europe in return for a mission of European Union experts intended to monitor gas flows from the country through Ukraine, EU officials said.

"Gazprom said no to the mission. We are disappointed, because we believe the Russian side has no reason to refuse and not to allow the resumption of supplies through Ukraine to the EU," Czech energy minister Martin Riman, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, told reporters in Brussels.

Moscow/Brussels  - Russian gas monopolist Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz will sit for further face-to-face talks as soon as both leave Brussels on Thursday to fly to Moscow on the same airplane, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said.

"We flew to Brussels on the same flight. That is why we don't need to hold special talks in Brussels. We plan to fly to Russia together," Miller was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying in Brussels.