Brussels/Moscow  - The row over Russia's cut-off of gas supplies to the European Union via Ukraine hit a new chill Thursday after all-day talks in Brussels ended in mutual recriminations.

The failure by EU, Russian and Ukrainian officials to seal a deal leaves many European countries facing the prospect of gas shortages at the height of winter.

Discussions in Brussels focused on convincing Russia to renew its gas deliveries through its neighbour to Europe in return for an EU mission aimed at making sure the gas is not stolen en route, as claimed by Moscow.

But Russian monopolist Gazprom "refused this proposal," Czech energy minister Martin Riman, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, told reporters in Brussels.

"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," he said.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that Gazprom had rejected the deal because Ukraine had refused to accept any Russian observers on its territory - a key demand from Moscow.

"We cannot impose observers from a third party on Ukraine ... We tried to convince (the Russians) that EU observers would be objective enough," he said.

But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in turn accused the EU leaders of blocking the deal.

"On the Russian side, both the energy minister and the CEO of Gazprom signed the protocol, but unfortunately our partners in the European Commission have refused to sign it," he said in televised comments, saying they had lacked a mandate from EU-member states.

Piebalgs said the EU would nevertheless send 10 to 12 representatives from the European gas industry and the European Commission, the EU's executive, to Kiev on Friday.

The EU's failure to broker a deal and secure an immediate resumption of gas supplies casts a new chill over the already icy dispute, following Gazprom's decision Tuesday to cut all gas supplies to and through Ukraine.

"This is not a technical problem, it is political," Riman said, calling for political talks "at the highest level" to seek a solution.

And it comes as EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe bear the brunt of the coldest winter in decades, with households and industries left without heating across much of the region.

Russia supplies roughly 25 per cent of the EU's total gas consumption, and 80 per cent of that total passes through Ukrainian pipelines.

The row erupted when Kiev and Moscow failed to agree on the price Ukraine should pay for Russian gas and the fee it should charge for running fuel through its territory to Europe.

And it escalated dramatically on Tuesday, when Gazprom shut off all gas supplies through Ukraine, saying that the move was necessary to stop Ukraine siphoning off European gas for its own purposes - a claim Kiev hotly rejected.

In Brussels, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and the head of Ukraine's monopolist Naftogaz, Oleh Dubyna, both supported the idea of an EU observation mission in principle, but failed to find agreement on the details.

With many European countries being forced to tap into their gas reserves to compensate for the shortages, the EU is set to hold a meeting of energy experts on Friday and an emergency meeting of national energy ministers on Monday.

Officials in Brussels stressed that the current dispute between Ukraine and Russia risked tarnishing their images as reliable energy suppliers for years to come. (dpa)