Kiev - Spot fuel shortages were on the increase in Ukraine on Friday, as Kiev and Moscow moved towards an agreement on natural gas shipments to the former Soviet republic.

Diesel fuel reserves for public heating plants were, according to local politicians, down to two days' supply in the capital Kiev, as officials scrambled to keep homes and businesses warm during Russia's natural gas embargo.

Hot water to millions of homes had been cut off to residents of the provincial cities Zhitomyr, Zaporizhia and Chernovtsi owing to low pressure in gas lines needed to fire water-heating plants.

Brussels - Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the details of a monitoring mission designed to ensure that Russian gas destined for the European Union is not siphoned off as it travels through Ukrainian pipelines, officials in Brussels said Friday.

"There is now agreement on the details of the monitoring mission," the European Commission said in a statement.

"It is now imperative that the gas starts to flow to the European Union without any further delay," the EU's executive arm said.

The breakthrough came after overnight discussions brokered by the EU saw Russian and Ukrainian authorities accept to host both EU monitors and experts from their neighbouring country, officials in Brussels said.

Kiev  - City managers in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Tuesday began energy conservation measures because of falling supplies of natural gas, officials at the power company Kievenergo said.

Kiev residents, for their part, were resorting to tried and true methods of beating the cold, as yet another gas war with Russia and a vicious cold snap enveloped their city.

"A fur hat is the way to survive the winter," said Vadym Panchenko, a pensioner and taking in the fresh air at Kiev's central Maidan Square. "No one can turn off a fur hat."

Moscow/Kiev - Russia and Ukraine held talks over a solution to the escalating gas dispute shortly before the beginning of an EU crisis meeting in Brussels, media reports said Thursday.

The heads of Russian state-owned Gazprom, Alexei Miller, and Ukraine's Naftogaz Oleg Dubina met in Moscow, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. He did not give any details about the talks.

Kiev and Moscow are locked in a dispute over gas prices, with Gazprom accusing Ukraine of siphoning off supplies to EU markets since Russia stopped its gas deliveries to its neighbouring country last week.

Moscow - Russia has rediscovered its image as a hungry bear as it blunders too far in the latest gas spat with Ukraine, forcing Europe from its benign disregard as temperatures plunge below zero.

The 2009 version of Russian export monopoly Gazprom's gas cuts is different from the 2006 standoff. Like so much else, it must be viewed through the prism of the global financial crisis and the critical blows this has dealt to the two warring parties.

Moscow/Kiev - Russia has halted all supplies of gas to Western European customers in an escalation of the energy dispute between Moscow and Ukraine, a spokesman for Ukrainian gas monopoly Naftogaz said on Thursday morning.

The Naftogaz statement, reported by the Interfax agency, came after Austrian Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner told local radio on Wednesday that his country had received no supplies from Russia via Ukraine overnight.