The sharp escalation in the energy war between Ukraine and Russia led to big cuts in gas supplies across Europe Tuesday amid freezing winter temperatures.

The second reduction since January 1 by Russian gas monopolist Gazprom saw shipments cut to just 72 million cubic meters of gas for European consumers, from 260 million on Monday and an average of 300 million previously.

Officials in both Russia and Ukraine confirmed plans to renew talks on ending the conflict in Moscow on Thursday. But the sides remained far apart on a host of issues.

Budapest  - At 3.30 p. m. on Tuesday, Ukraine completely shut off the flow of natural gas to its western neighbour Hungary, the minister for energy Csaba Molnar said after a crisis meeting.

From Wednesday morning, power stations than can will have to switch to alternative sources of energy, Molnar announced. He added that further restrictions on the industrial use of gas might still have to be made.

Vienna - Russia cut its supply of natural gas to Austria by 90 per cent Monday night, Austrian oil and gas supplier OMV AG said Tuesday.

The reduction came amid Ukraine's conflict with Russian state gas company Gazprom, which pipes its gas to Western Europe through the Ukraine.

OMV would be able to keep up its delivery to end customers by using its stock of 1.7 billion cubic metres, the company said.

"That way, the supply situation is secured," said Werner Auli, one of OMV's chief executives.

However, the amount of natural gas piped from Austria to Hungary fell on Tuesday, illustrating the effects of the spat between the Ukraine and Russia.

Istanbul - Russian gas supplies to Turkey via Ukrainian pipelines have been cut amid the ongoing dispute over gas between Kiev and Moscow, the Turkish government said Tuesday.

Sofia - The flow of Russi

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.