Moldova has turned to neighboring Ukraine for gas supplies to meet its basic needs as it has not received Russian gas for two days after prices doubled, Moldovan information agency said on Monday.

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko had a telephone conversation Monday on Russia's halt of gas supplies to their countries and Yushchenko agreed to supply Moldova with Ukrainian gas, it said.

Also on Monday, Voronin held a cabinet meeting to discuss Moldova's gas dispute with Russia. He expressed regret over Russia's declining of further discussions with Moldova about the issue.

Moldova opposed Russia's decision to raise the gas price to 160 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, the president said.

The government said in a communique on Monday that in the past two months Moldova has repeatedly proposed discussing with Moscow Russian gas supplies and their prices, but the proposals were turned down.

Russia refused negotiations with Moldova because it wanted the Moldovan government to review its political stance first, the communique said.

Moldova is the first of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to apply for European Union membership.

Moldova is willing to discuss with Russia the issue of adjusting the gas prices according to world market conditions, the communique said.

Moldova had received Russian gas supplies at favorable prices as a CIS country. But from January 2005, Moscow raised the price from 62 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters to 68 dollars, and later, decided to raise the price further to 160 dollars.