Russia Close To New Gas Transit Deal With Ukraine: Putin

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Moscow and Kiev were close to a new deal on supplies of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, adding a new gas war would not be in Russia's interest.

"I think we will agree. We are on our way to an agreement, we will strive for Ukraine to be content with this agreement," Putin said during his annual end-of-year news conference.

His remarks came as Russia, the European Union and Ukraine were holding in Berlin on Thursday the latest round of talks on a new gas transit deal.

The current gas transit contract between the two ex-Soviet countries expires at the end of the year.

Previous rounds of talks on the extension of the agreement have failed.

Putin said Thursday that Moscow wants to keep some gas flowing through Ukraine, despite having built several pipelines to Europe since the current deal was agreed a decade ago.

Last year Russia's Gazprom supplied Europe with 200.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas, with about 40 percent going through Ukraine.

"Despite building many infrastructure projects... we will keep transit through Ukraine, the question is the volume of this gas and the dates of the contract," Putin said.

Last year's ruling by the Stockholm Arbitration Court has been a major stumbling block, however.

Ukrainian state-owned energy firm Naftogaz claims that Gazprom has to pay it some $2.56 billion after the Stockholm court ruled in favour of Ukraine during a long-running legal battle.

The ruling has not been made public and the Russian gas giant has rejected the claim.

"We want to solve this problem," Putin said.

"I am certain that the decision by the Stockholm Arbitration Court is political rather than legal... but there is a court decision and we have to act based on that."

He added that Moscow had no desire to use its natural resources to strongarm Ukraine into a deal against its will -- something Russia has often been accused of.

"We have no desire to exacerbate the situation concerning the energy and use it to influence the situation in Ukraine," he said.

"We are interested in Ukraine getting the resources, and our clients in Europe being calm, knowing that our relations with our neighbours are normal."

On Wednesday, Germany said that so far discussions were proceeding in a "relatively optimistic" atmosphere.

Ukraine earns around $3 billion per year from sending Russian gas to Europe but ties between the two countries have been shredded since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a separatist insurgency in the east.

Russia's gas pipelines include the Nord Stream 2 project which seeks to double gas volumes to Germany.

On Wednesday Russia vowed to complete construction of the pipeline despite approval by the US Senate of sanctions that have also angered European states led by Germany.