Russia rejects allegations of energy blackmail

MANILA, Aug 3 (Reuters) Russia is not using its oil and gas exports to blackmail neighbours and will make its energy resources accessible to the world, its foreign minister said today.

Sergei Lavrov also defended the planting of the Russian flag on the seabed below the North Pole earlier this week, which has been criticised as a stunt to try and claim energy-rich territory.

''We're not throwing flags around,'' Lavrov told reporters after meeting his Philippine counterpart in Manila.

''But it's a tradition that whenever an explorer comes to an unknown land he installs his flag there. That's the way it goes, that's the way it happened on the moon.'' Earlier, Lavrov asked critics to prove that Moscow was using its energy resources as a weapon to impose on other countries, but did not directly refer to a dispute with Belarus over a 500 million dollars gas debt.

''Don't trust those who say that Russia is using its hydrocarbon exports to blackmail other countries,'' Lavrov told business executives at a meeting arranged by the Asian Institute of Management in Manila.

''This is simply not true. We have never ever violated a single obligation to countries who import our energy. I challenge all those who accuse us of energy blackmail to present a single fact to the contrary.'' Belarus avoided a cut in Russian gas supplies on Friday by partly repaying its debt to Moscow, but Russia kept the pressure on by warning Minsk it must pay up in full within a week or face punishment.

Lavrov said Russia's economy grew at an average of 7 percent during the past six years and credited high oil prices for the country's economic turnaround from the politically turbulent and economically unstable 1990s.

''Of course, high oil prices contributed to this figure, but, out of this 7 per cent, only 2 per cent was accounted for by the favourable oil and gas prices,'' said Lavrov, who was in Manila to attend a security forum.

''The rest of the growth was achieved through various factors, including structural reforms and consumer spending.'' Lavrov said Russia's economy was likely to grow more than 7 per cent this year.

He said his government had promised to make its oil wealth accessible and guarantee stable energy supplies to all countries, ''not only to our friends and allies''.

REUTERS SYU DS1610