MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian gas giant Gazprom warned Belarus Monday that it was acting irresponsibly in refusing to accept a gas price hike and was compromising the country's future energy supply.

"After long months of negotiations to move on to (free) market principles, the Belarusian party said today that it wanted to pay the price (charged to) the (neighboring) Russian region of Smolensk," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupryanov told AFP.

Prices on the internal Russian market are well below those charged for exports to Ukraine and western European countries.

"This position of Belarus is irresponsible and raises questions about the country's energy supply," he said.