Russian company Gazprom was worried by a delay in the negotiations with the Bulgarian government for natural gas supply and transit transport, Reuters news agency reported.

Gazprom wanted to re-negotiated the existing contract with Bulgaria as it was unprofitable for the company, Reuters said.

The existing contract would be in force until 2010. It envisions the supply of three billion cubic m of natural gas for Bulgaria and the transit passage of another 17 billion cubic m through the country for Southeast European countries.

Bulgaria was paying greater part of the supplies with the money from the transit tax. Thus the price the country was paying was three times lower than the gas price in Europe.

The contract led to ungrounded allocation of the benefit in Bulgaria's favour and considerable losses for Gazprom, Reuters said as quoting source close to the Russian company.