"Agreements on supplies and transit of gas through Slovakian territory expire in 2008. Today we have agreed in principle on concluding new long-term contracts," Putin said in Moscow without providing details of the future contracts.

Putin stressed Slovakia's importance as a transit route for Russian gas to Europe, saying: "Our energy deliveries to consumers on the European continent depend largely on the effectiveness of our cooperation."

Most Russian gas supplies to Europe travel via Ukraine to Slovakia's pipeline system, then on to Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Putin also noted that Russia supplies about 90 percent of Slovakia's energy demand.

The Slovak president welcomed planned cooperation on "building new nuclear energy blocks in the future.

"Views on nuclear energy are changing... in the EU, and we see prospects for cooperating with the Russian Federation in this sphere," Gasparovic said.

Russia is prepared to modernize two Slovak nuclear power plants and to build more electric and hydroelectric power plants in the country, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Bilateral trade has risen rapidly between the two countries, jumping by 58 percent in the first eight months of the year over the same period in 2005 to 3.7 billion dollars (2.9 billion euros).

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