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.

Brussels/Prague - The European Union is to send a beefed-up peace mission to the Middle East in a bid to end the ongoing conflict between Israel and Islamic group Hamas, EU officials said Friday.

As well as Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, EU top diplomat Javier Solana and Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt are set to join the mission.

The Czech Republic took over the EU's rotating presidency from France on Thursday and is set to hand it on to Sweden on July 1.

Moscow/Kiev - Kiev asked the European Union to mediate in a standoff with Russia on Thursday after gas export monopoly Gazprom fully cut supplies of Russian gas to Ukrainian consumers, in turn threatening disruptions in deliveries to Europe.

A joint statement signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko made public early Thursday morning said their country had asked the EU to mediate the dispute, and promised supplies to Europe would continue "uninterrupted."

Moscow - In the annual Russia-Ukraine game of chicken over pricing for gas exports, Russia crashed the car once in 2006. This year, it showed it is willing and able to do so all over again.

Unable to reach a deal on gas pricing and transit tariffs with Ukraine before midnight on December 31, Russian gas monopolist Gazprom opened the new year with a full stop to exports to its former Soviet neighbor.

The European Union held an uncomfortable seat on the sidelines of the jousting and refused to enter the fray as long as its supplies kept flowing.

Bratislava  - Slovakia abandoned its currency of 15 years, the Slovak koruna, and adopted the euro on Thursday, in a move that sealed the ex-Soviet satellite's economic success.

The central European country of 5.4 million is the second formerly communist country, after Slovenia, to qualify for the switch to Europe's common currency.

Slovakia is the 16th member of the eurozone, which faces a sharp economic downturn following the turmoil on global financial markets.

Prague  - The Czech Republic assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on Thursday, nearly two decades after communism collapsed in the central European country of 10 million.

The second formerly communist nation after Slovenia to hold the presidency took over the EU's helm at a time when the continent faces an economic crisis, Israel is attacking the Gaza Strip and Russia and Ukraine are embroiled in a gas row.