Moscow - Russian gas was on its way to Europe Tuesday after the Russian monopoly Gazprom began pumping it into a Ukrainian transit pipeline for the first time since a nearly two-week supply blockade began.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said in Moscow that Gazprom began the deliveries at 4 am (0100 GMT), and Gazprom said it would resume normal gas flows to Europe about six hours later.

The supply resumed after both countries laid aside a bitter dispute over fees and the illegal siphoning of gas, which had cut European countries off from energy supplies in the middle of a harsh winter.

Ukraine said it would not obstruct the deliveries, but experts said even after the taps are reopened, it could take at least one day for gas flows to reach Europe.

Tymoshenko said she had followed the resumption of the supplies from a Gazprom checkpoint in Russia. She flew overnight back to Kiev, where she is to meet later Tuesday with the EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

The European Union has been hard hit by the gas row since Russia cut all supplies via Ukraine on January 7, accusing it of stealing gas transits.

Roughly one-quarter of all gas burned in the EU comes from Russia, and 80 per cent of it passes through Ukrainian pipelines.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without heating fuel, and factories and schools have been forced to close as sub-freezing temperature swept countries in Eastern Europe most severely affected by the gas cut-off.

Russia cut gas to Ukraine on January 1 after it refused a fixed price of 250 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres - a huge increase over the 179.50 dollars Ukraine paid last year.

Tymoshenko said she expected a price of 230 dollars this year.

Analysts said it would be difficult for Ukraine to swallow the higher energy prices because its economy hangs on the brink of bankruptcy, relying on a 16.4-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund. (dpa)