A deal between Russia and Belarus on an oil pipeline was “very close” and supplies should be restored in the near future, EU energy chief Andris Piebalgs said today after meeting a senior Russian official.

Belarus has blocked the transit of Russian oil through its territory to European countries including Germany and Poland, news reports said today, raising the stakes in a bitter energy dispute between Russia and the neighbouring former Soviet nation.

Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said today that a oil pipeline leak threatened environmental damage, but the pipeline’s operator and emergency officials said the spill was far smaller than the ministry claimed and had already been cleaned up.