Accord signed in Russia gas row

Russia and European Union officials have signed a deal, which could pave the way for the re-opening of gas supplies to Europe.
The deal, signed by Russian PM Vladimir Putin and Czech PM Mirek Topolanek, sets out how gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine will be monitored.
Hundreds of thousands of European homes have no heating after gas shipments via Ukraine were halted on Wednesday.
The Czech PM is going to Ukraine, which must sign the deal if it is to work.
'Calming Russian fears'
The deal followed five hours of talks between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and officials from the European Union.
"Let's sign and we will go immediately to Kiev to ask the same of the Ukrainian side. And so, we will end the crisis," said Mr Topolanek, who represented the EU.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's office said she would meet Mr Topolanek in Kiev on Saturday evening.
Under the deal, EU, Ukrainian and Russian observers will monitor supplies, in order to calm Russian fears that Ukraine is siphoning off gas for its own use. Ukraine has denied this allegation.
Mr Putin is quoted on Interfax, the Russian news agency, as saying that the "transit of gas through Ukraine will start again as soon as the (transit) control mechanism starts to work".
EU monitors are in Kiev and are expected to head to the pumping and measuring stations on Ukraine's eastern and western borders early on Sunday, a spokesman for Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state energy company, told the BBC.
Separately, talks on the sale of Russian gas to the Ukraine - as opposed to the transit of Russian gas to Europe via the Ukraine - have ended without an agreement.
Gazprom's offer price of $450 per 1,000 cubic metres was more than double the $201 Ukraine was prepared to accept, Oleh Dubyna, Naftogaz chief executive said. Ukraine paid $179.5 in 2008.
Russia cut supplies to the Ukraine on New Year's Day.
"Unfortunately, the talks with Gazprom have finished with nothing," he said.
"The talks now have to proceed at a higher level."
Bitter dispute
Even if a deal goes through, the affected countries are unlikely to have gas before Monday at the earliest.
Ukraine and Russia's bitter contractual dispute over gas prices and transit fees has affected several countries.
Although both countries had guaranteed that transit supplies to Europe would be unaffected, they were cut off amid mutual accusations between Kiev and Moscow.
The EU gets a quarter of its gas supplies from Russia, 80% of which passes through Ukraine and more than 15 countries across central Europe have been hit by the shutdown of Russian supplies.
Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina are among the worst hit as many homes rely on heating stations that only run on gas.
Meanwhile the Slovak government has decided to restart a nuclear power station because of the gas supply cuts, Prime Minister Robert Fico said.
Slovakia shut the Jaslovske Bohunice power station at the end of last year in order to comply with its European Union accession agreement.