In addition to the Nabucco project, which would bring gas from Central Asia to Europe, Hungary is interested in the South Stream pipeline, which would deliver Russian gas, via an alternative route than the present one, and in the development of a liquefied petroleum gas terminal in Croatia, Mr Molnar said.

Hungary will increase the size of its strategic reserves from 500m to 1.2bn cubic metres by year-end, he said, outlining further steps being taken to make Hungary less energy dependent. The capacity of commercial stores will rise to 3.7bn cubic metres in 2010, 4.1bn in 2011 and 4.8bn in 2011, he added.

The capacity expansion would raise the amount of gas Hungary can release from reserves and commercial stores from 53.2m cubic metres to 62.2m cubic metres. Domestic production would bring the daily amount to 80m cubic metres, or more than Hungary needed on any of the days during the gas crisis in January, Mr Molnar said.

In addition to finding alternative energy supply routes, such as interconnectors that link Hungary's gas network with ones in Croatia, Romania and Slovakia, Hungary must develop alternative sources of energy and increase energy efficiency, Mr Molnar said. Some HUF 100bn is available for the development of renewable energy resources until the end of the 2007-2013 EU budget period. Raising output of biomass power plants and using more geothermal energy is a priority.

The aim is to raise the proportion of renewable energy as a part of total energy consumption from a little more than 5pc to at least 13pc by 2020, in line with an EU director, Mr Molnar said.