Germany needs energy supply protection -Merkel

BERLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) Germany needs protection against problems in delivering its energy supplies, Chancellor Angela Merkel said today after Russia cut off crude exports to Belarus, halting supplies to Germany and Poland.

''This has not caused any acute threats to our energy supply.

But there have been transit problems again and again over the past few years,'' Merkel said in a German television interview.

''We need legal protection, we need contract security.'' Merkel did not directly criticise Moscow but said Berlin would engage in ''intensive discussions'' about this issue.

Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft said it was forced to act because Minsk had been siphoning off oil illegally from the Druzhba ('Friendship') pipeline system.

Merkel, who is presiding over Germany's six-month EU presidency also said the European Union hoped to begin negotiating a new EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Moscow this year and added that Berlin would play a key role in those talks over the next six months.

''I will travel to Moscow on 21 January and will discuss this issue with the Russian president. I hope that we can end the (Polish) blocking of these talks in the foreseeable future,'' she said.

Poland has blocked the start of EU negotiations with Russia due to a dispute over Moscow's decision to ban Polish meat imports.

She reiterated that Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy exports, wanted to eventually reduce its dependency on Moscow by diversifying its energy mix.

Merkel, whose conservative party has traditionally taken a favourable attitude towards nuclear energy, added that it was worth considering what consequences Germany's plan to phase out nuclear energy by the early 2020s will have for the country.

The nuclear phase-out plan was approved by the previous government of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. The SPD is in a power sharing ''grand coalition'' with Merkel's conservatives and refuse to discuss the idea of abandoning the phase-out plan.

Reuters DKS VP0148