Budapest - The Hungarian energy firm MOL and the Croatian government signed a deal on Friday over the unbundling of the gas unit of Croatian firm INA, in which MOL holds the largest stake.

In the buyout deal, Croatian state-owned Plinacro will pay 514 million Croatian kuna (89.44 million dollars) for INA's gas interests, which include the large Okoli storage facility near the capital Zagreb, MOL said in a statement.

The contracts were signed in Zagreb by Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec and the CEO of MOL, Zsolt Hernadi.

Budapest - The Budapest Stock Exchange suspended trading in shares of the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL just after 2 pm on Thursday citing a major forthcoming announcement by the company.

Trading in MOL shares will remain suspended on Friday and on Monday, February 2, the stock exchange announced.

"The issuer informed the bourse on January 29 that is about to make an extraordinary announcement that could greatly affect the share price, so it requested that trading be suspended," the CEO of the exchange, Gyorgy Mohai said in a statement.

Budapest - In Hungary's sixth bank robbery in just two weeks, an armed man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses demanded cash on Wednesday morning from a branch of Unicredit bank in a Budapest shopping centre before making his escape on foot.

A couple of hours later, an armed man robbed a security van of several sacks of money outside another mall on the other side of the city. The police said they have no reason so far to think the crimes were connected.

Budapest - The Budapest Nabucco summit has broken the "deadlock that (the gas pipeline project) has suffered over the past few years," Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany told the press on Tuesday afternoon after the conclusion of high-level meetings with stakeholder countries and potential gas suppliers.

"We will do everything we can to make sure that stakeholder countries can come to an intergovernmental agreement by the middle of June," Gyurcsany said. "Following this we will endeavour to set up preliminary agreements with supply countries," he added.

Budapest - The heads of the EU's European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday that their institutions are prepared to provide financial backing for the Nabucco gas pipeline project, providing certain conditions are met.

"The EIB is ready to finance projects that further EU objectives of increased sustainability and energy security," said the president of the European Investment Bank Philippe Maystadt during the opening addresses by participants in a "Nabucco summit" in Hungary on Tuesday.

Budapest  - Senior EU ministers, heads of state and financiers began arriving in the Hungarian capital on Monday for a high-level summit to discuss the planned Nabucco gas pipeline.

Hungary's Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said he intends to urge the European Union at the summit on Tuesday to provide financial backing to help get the Nabucco project off the ground.

Nabucco is a 3,300-kilometre gas pipeline that is planned to bring natural gas from Central Asia and the Middle East into the EU. The eight-billion-euro project is seen by the EU as a crucial step towards reducing Europe's dependence on Russian gas.