Ukraine says it's repaid its gas debt to Russia, Russia begs to differ and talks continue to avoid a threatened cutoff that could disrupt supplies to Europe.
**European stocks advance as a disastrous year closes
**Bleak numbers for airline passenger and cargo trafficStefanie McIntyre reports.SOUNDBITES: Sergei Kupriyanov, Gazprom spokesman, saying (Russian):"At the moment the situation with Ukraine's debt has not yet been solved, and the debt until now is still about 2 billion dollars so the contracts for gas supply in the next year we still don't have, and this means that we will not have reasons to keep supplying gas. [to Ukraine]"
Robert Halver, Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank
