Belarus and Russia's natural gas monopoly signed a five-year contract for gas supplies early Monday, just hours before Russia had threatened to cut off supplies in a price dispute, the Associated Press reported. Under the agreement, Belarus will pay $100 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2007 -- a reduction from the $105 that Gazprom had demanded, according to Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov. It was not immediately clear why Gazprom agreed to the lower price for 2007. But the contract locks Belarus into agreeing to pay increasing prices over the subsequent four years. The agreement also calls for Gazprom to purchase 50 percent of the shares in Beltransgaz, the Belarusian pipeline network, Kupriyanov said.
