"We have an agreement that talks on gas supplies from Iran to Georgia on a long-term basis may be held if necessary, but we are not holding talks of this kind now," Georgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zurab Gumbaridze told a news conference in Baku.
Gas from Iran and Azerbaijan, which has begun to flow to Georgia as the country attempts to meet energy demand following disruptions to supplies from Russia, is being supplied only as a short-term arrangement, Gumbaridze said.
"It is a matter of emergency help at the moment," he said.
Gumbaridze said, however, that Iranian gas was of significant importance to both Georgia and Azerbaijan.
"Azerbaijan and Georgia have common interests [in gas cooperation with Iran]," he said.
Georgia usually imports natural gas from Russia alone, but supplies were disrupted on January 22, when explosions wrecked a pipeline in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia.
The Georgian leadership was quick to accuse its neighbor of orchestrating the incident. Both the Russian authorities and Gazprom, the country's energy giant, dismissed the charges, but ill feeling continues to mar bilateral relations.
Georgia subsequently turned to Armenia and fellow Caspian Sea state Iran, which agreed to supply natural gas at $120 per 1,000 cubic meters, $10 more expensive than Russian gas.
The energy crisis in Georgia escalated Thursday, when a major power failure in the early hours of the day left the capital, Tbilisi, and much of the east of the country without electricity.
