PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The European Union accused Russia and Ukraine of holding their neighbors hostage with a cutoff of gas supplies and urged the countries' political leaders to settle their dispute.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, said the bloc no longer views the Russian-Ukraine dispute as a trade spat. Their gas companies are state-owned and "whatever they do they don't do without political influence," Topolanek said.

Speaking to reporters, he gave Russia and Ukraine until Thursday to resolve their dispute.

He did not elaborate about any consequences, but suggested both were risking their future relations with the 27-nation bloc. "Russia and Ukraine have a vested interest" in good relations with their neighbors, he said.

Topolanek discussed the gas dispute with members of the European Commission, the Brussels-based EU executive, who were in Prague.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso spoke by telephone with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko to urge them to resolve their dispute.

The EU had previously treated it as a simple trade dispute to avoid inflaming the debate. The cutoff of Russia's westward gas deliveries through Ukraine _ completed Wednesday _ changed the EU attitude.

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By early Wednesday, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey had all reported a halt in gas shipments, while France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary reported substantial drops in supplies. Smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey.

Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, Barroso's spokeswoman, said "it is unacceptable that the EU gas supply security is taken hostage to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine."

The gas dispute _ over the pricing of Russian gas for Ukraine _ is a repeat of what happened in the winter of 2005-2006.

Russia stopped all gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after both countries failed to agree on prices and transit fees for next year.

Over the past week, Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off tens of millions of cubic meters of gas that was meant for Europe from its transit pipelines.

Ukraine admitted diverting some transit gas, saying it had the right to use the fuel to run its pumping system. Gazprom, the Russian state monopoly, then started dramatically reducing supplies to European consumers this week.

The crisis began after Russia and Ukraine failed to agree on a gas price for 2009 and on payment of $600 million Gazprom says it is due from Ukraine's Naftogaz.

In 2008, Russia charged Ukraine about half what it charged its European customers for gas. The subsidy is a legacy of the Soviet era, when both countries were part of the U.S.S.R.

Gazprom has long sought to charge Ukraine European-level prices. Ukraine says that if it pays more for gas, Russia should pay more for shipping gas through Ukraine.