The European Union has a harsh New Year's resolution to keep after a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine led to official exhortations for Europe to look for a wider range of suppliers and energy sources.

European governments must tighten their belts, concentrate more on renewable energy and reconsider nuclear power, EU officials said this week.

"As long as we spend more and more on energy, we will be getting more and more dependent," said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. "We should be looking more at the energy sources we have in the European Union."

The Russian-Ukraine gas spat, which led to European customers reporting a sharp drop-off in their own gas supplies, is yet another wake-up call after oil prices last year rose above $70 US a barrel.

Unless it changes its consumption or savings habits, the EU will import almost 70 per cent of its energy by 2030 and it will compete for a finite pool of oil and gas with energy-hungry boom economies such as India and China.

After the oil shocks of the early 1970s, European countries tapped into North Sea oil and gas deposits. But these supplies are dwindling, Piebalgs said. "The issue is to diversify supplies as far as we can."

Europe is a growth market for gas as it turns away from coal. In 2004, gas imports increased by 5.5 per cent and consumption grew by 3.1 per cent.

A quarter of Europe's imported gas comes from Russia, but Russia's dispute with Ukraine raised questions about its reliability as a supplier. If Europe is to lean less on the state-controlled monopoly Gazprom, it will have to buy more from North Africa and the Middle East, build new pipelines - such as the Caspian Sea route via Turkey - and use more liquefied natural gas, which is easier to pump and transport.