KIEV, Sept. 11 - Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has reiterated his call for the creation of an international consortium consisting of Ukraine, Russia and the European Union in order to modernize the Ukrainian gas transport system.

"We understand that the so-called gas conflicts of Ukraine and Russia in recent years have demonstrated the need for the joint coordination of actions on energy security. I mean the combination of the interests of Russia as a supplier, Ukraine as a transit country, and the EU as a major customer. It's clear that the Ukrainian gas transport system is in need of major modernization," Azarov wrote in an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the text of which was published in the Izvestia v Ukraine newspaper on Monday.