Brussels - The current row over gas supplies between Russia and Ukraine risks "discrediting" both countries as reliable energy partners, European Union diplomats meeting in Brussels said Monday.

At the emergency meeting of EU national representatives, "more and more countries" said that "Russia and Ukraine are discrediting themselves as reliable energy sources," an EU diplomat close to the talks told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Some countries, especially those from Central and Eastern Europe who have seen unnerving fluctuations in their gas supplies since the Russian-Ukrainian row began, "said that it is more important than ever to diversify and pay more attention to energy security," the diplomat said.

The meeting stopped short of calling for concrete action, instead agreeing that the dispute is a purely bilateral commercial one, and not an issue in which the EU should try to mediate - despite Ukrainian calls for EU involvement.

But diplomats also agreed that EU foreign ministers should discuss the issue further at an informal meeting in Prague on Thursday, the first time the issue has been passed to senior EU politicians, even on an informal level.

Also on Monday, the Czech government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and the European Commission, the EU's executive, sent a joint mission to Kiev to find out exactly what is happening with gas supplies and press Ukraine to resume talks.

The mission is set to meet Russian gas officials on Tuesday. Representatives of both Russia and Ukraine are due to attend a meeting of EU energy officials in Brussels on Friday.

On Saturday, Czech Deputy Premier Alexandr Vondra warned that the EU could react to the crisis by speeding up construction on pipelines bringing gas from new suppliers by new routes into Europe. (dpa)