KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax) - Russia may be allowed to join the process of modernization of the Ukrainian gas transmission system, Ukrainian president's representative for international issues of energy security Bohdan Sokolovskiy said.

"Yet the future of the national gas transmission system of Ukraine lies in its integration into the European market," he said commenting on the recent visit of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to Brussels," the Ukrainian president's spokesman said on Tuesday.

According to Sokolovskiy, the recent events on the gas market confirmed that the European consumers were interested in the "energy unification with Ukraine."

"Naturally, currently it is possible to state one thing: the crisis in the Ukrainian-Russian gas relations which strongly affected the European consumers, proves the need for a unification of the Ukrainian and European energy networks," he said.

Within this context, Sokolovskiy said that during Yushchenko's visit to Brussels, the EU commission chairman clearly said that an option of direct EU-Ukraine contracts for Russian gas transit was not discussed in the talks. They did not discuss specific commercial projects either.

Currently the issue of "more strategic relations" between the EU commission and Ukraine is becoming more important, he said.