Belarus will continue to seek alternative suppliers of gas despite the expected creation of a common economic space (CES) with Russia and Kazakhstan, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said on Tuesday.
The lower house of the former Soviet state's parliament ratified all documents necessary to create the CES earlier on Tuesday.
"The CES documents do not obstruct the implementation of other projects concerning gas supplies to Belarus," Kobyakov told journalists in Minsk.
He said Minsk has now entered a new round of haggling over prices for Russian gas.
Russia's state-run energy monopoly Gazprom said in October it would raise its gas price for Belarus from the current $185 to $220 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2011.
Russia slashed supplies to Belarus in a row over payments in June, but later resumed them after Minsk paid off its $200 million debt to Gazprom.
MINSK, December 21 (RIA Novosti)
