"No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe," said Brown, adding that he would take action to stop the U.K., "sleepwalking into an energy dependence on less stable or reliable partners."
Brown's words came a day after what he called a "frank" phone conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ahead of an EU emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday on the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.
Brown argued for additional funding to construct a pipeline from the Caspian Sea carrying gas through Turkey to the West. This would go around the traditional supply route through Russia and neighboring ex-Soviet republics. Some analysts had suggested that the Nabucco pipeline project could be put in jeopardy by the recent conflict in Georgia.
At the EU summit on Monday, the organization is expected to promise to send peace monitors to Georgia. They are also to review ties and relations with Russia in the light of the Georgia crisis.
The recent conflict between Russia and Georgia began on August 8 when Georgian forces attacked breakaway South Ossetia. Russia mounted an operation to expel Georgian troops from the rebel region, and then pushed on into parts of Georgia proper. Moscow announced the end of its operation "to force Georgia to peace" on August 12.
Last Tuesday, Moscow recognized South Ossetia and another Georgian breakaway republic, Abkhazia, as independent states, despite warnings from Western leaders not to do so.
