Gas talks.

The chief executive of Russia's state-owned gas com-pany Gazprom, Alexey Miller, was scheduled to visit Bulgaria on March 1 for talks on the future of the South Stream gas pipeline and Bulgaria's gas delivery contracts with Gazprom, which expire at the end of 2012, mass-circulation daily Trud said. Bulgaria has long insisted on a direct contract with Gazprom, rather than with intermediaries partially or fully owned by the Russian company, but Gazprom has always refused to consider this option. Relations between the two countries in the energy sector have soured since Bulgaria's cur-rent Cabinet took office in 2009 and Russia is currently considering a South Stream route around Bulgaria.