Outgoing European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has called on Ukraine and Russia to resolve their gas dispute, without specifying, however, whether the EU might finance Kyiv to pay for Russian gas deliveries in advance.

Barroso "urged all sides to seize the opportunity and conclude the negotiations in order to secure a continuous, reliable and market-based supply of gas to Ukraine," the European Commission said in a statement circulated in Brussels on Thursday.

Barroso talked on the phone on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko several times during parallel trilateral talks on gas between the European Commission, Ukraine and Russia in Brussels.

He "emphasized that an agreement was within reach on the basis of the proposals put forward by the European Commission," the statement says.

The proposals from Brussels envision that Kyiv should pay $3.1 billion to settle its debt to Gazprom, including $2 billion to be paid by the end of October. Gazprom in turn should commit itself to resuming gas supplies to Ukraine, which were suspended in June, which would amount to at least 5 billion cubic meters at a rate of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters.