1:34 pm: Belarusian official announces agreement on 2007 gas price, Russia's Gazprom denies it

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - A top Belarusian official said late Saturday that the country has reached agreement with Russian state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom on a gas price for 2007, but Gazprom's chief spokesman said there is no deal and that talks are expected to continue.

Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said the sides agreed that Belarus would pay US$100 (?76) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas next year.

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told The Associated Press the statement was merely "Semashko's point of view" and the Belarusian position for negotiations.

"This does not correspond to an actual agreement with Gazprom," Kupriyanov said.

Semashko spoke at a news conference in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, after two days of talks between Belarusian energy officials and Gazprom officials at the Russian company's Moscow headquarters as a Gazprom deadline for Belarus to sign a new gas supply contract and avert a threatened New Year's Day cutoff drew closer.

Semashko said he intends to fly to Moscow on Sunday to join the talks. Kupriyanov had said that there could be no full-fledged negotiations and no agreement without Semashko and that the company had repeatedly invited him to come to Moscow.

"We are approaching a solution to the problem," Semashko said of the bitter gas price dispute that could affect European supplies.