ENERGY. Russia faced pressure to provide more reliable energy supplies to the world as finance ministers from the G8 wealthy nations flew to Moscow on Friday for talks centred on gas shortages and high oil prices.

Russia, chairing the G8 this year for the first time, has declared energy security a priority, but is now being asked to prove it is serious after a feud with Ukraine that halted gas flows to Europe this year.

Officials said they expected little concrete developments to emerge from the two-day meeting but said it was clear that France and other European members of the G8 wanted Moscow to allow more foreign investment and to loosen the monopoly of the Russian energy company, Gazprom.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to cave in to pressure on Gazprom despite his country?s newcomer status in the club of industrial democracies.

Russia?s number two oil official Sergei Oganesyan was quick to dismiss the idea before ministers had even convened.

Gazprom does not allow others to export gas to Europe or to even produce more than it is prepared to accept in trunk pipelines, all of which are under its control.

This is a problem for several of the other G8 countries -- which are the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy. There will be pressure from them on both Putin and his finance minister, Alexei Kudrin. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso highlighted the problem of obtaining oil and gas from areas of the world that are often unstable, arguing for more international coordination on energy policy.

AGEING. European Union finance ministers will pledge tomorrow to cut debt faster and reform pension and health care schemes, hoping to offset the effects of population ageing on public finances and economic growth.

Draft conclusions showed that unless swift action was taken, potential economic growth in the 25-member bloc would fall to 1.4 % in 2030-2050 from 2.2 % in 2004-2010 because of fewer people available to work.