Sydney - Events in Georgia show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin can't be trusted to abide by an undertaking not to use Australia uranium to make nuclear weapons, a Canberra parliamentary committee said Monday.

"I don't know if you've looked on the TV into Vladimir Putin's eyes," Treaties Committee chairman Kelvin Thomson said. "He's one tough son-of-a-gun and I don't think he cares about what we think. Recently he's taken South Ossetia and another province off Georgia, and there's no real come-back over that."

Vienna - Europe's declared goal to shift away from Russian oil and gas was always a challenge. It's even more difficult after Moscow's assault on Georgia, analysts say.

Georgia's strategic role as a pipeline transit country, run by a US-backed leadership that Moscow detests, formed the backdrop to the conflict that erupted in early August.

After Russian troops handed Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili a humiliating battlefield defeat, the region's fragility and Moscow's clout are more obvious than ever. Monday's emergency EU summit on Georgia will not change that in the short term.

Vienna (dpa) - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 1.28 dollars on Wednesday, amid expectations that the oil cartel would not raise its output at a September 9 meeting.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 111.79 dollars Wednesday, compared with 110.51 dollars on the previous day, OPEC said Thursday.

Vienna - Austrian energy provider EVN AG on Thursday reported its net profit decreased by 14.4 per cent to 190 million euros (278.8 million dollars) in the first three quarters of its 2007/08 business year due to higher primary energy prices.

EVN's earnings from operations fell to 165.4 million euros between October 2007 and June 2008, 11.5 per cent less than in the same period of the previous business year.

Lower temperatures helped to collect 8.3 per cent more in revenues, the company said. Sales rose to 1.84 billion euros so far this year, up from 1.70 billion euros.