"The special purpose that I see for today's meeting is to form an effective and permanent international mechanism that would prevent further situations like the current one and will provide for regular transit," Dmitry Medvedev told participants at the opening of the meeting.
The Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers, Vladimir Putin and Yulia Tymoshenko, and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs were among the representatives of countries consuming and transiting Russian natural gas attending.
The two premiers held a brief one-on-one meeting before the summit and agreed to continue their discussions after the gathering at the Kremlin Great Palace.
In televised opening remarks, Medvedev emphasized the failure of previous negotiations to achieve any results, and said the dispute should be settled as quickly as possible.
"People who live in European countries still do not have heat, and because of the lack of energy supplies the work of industrial enterprises is suspended," he said.
The summit was proposed by Medvedev on Wednesday at an emergency meeting with the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Slovakia and Moldova, among the countries worst-hit by the cut in Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine, which were halted on January 7.
An EU-brokered deal signed on Monday to have transits restarted has not been enough to resume deliveries, even though international monitors were deployed to ensure gas would not be siphoned off.
Eighteen EU member states and several other European countries have had gas supplies either halted or seriously disrupted. A senior European Union spokesman warned on Friday that "the meetings in coming days offer the last and best chance for Russia and Ukraine to demonstrate they are serious about resolving this dispute."
