© Efrem Lukatsky/APArseniy Yatsenyuk tells regional leaders in Donetsk he is committed to devolving more powers to Ukraine's regions.
In an attempt to quell the deepening crisis in eastern Ukraine, the interim prime minister has offered to devolve more power to the regions.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk met officials in Donetsk on Friday, where pro-Russian separatists are occupying government buildings and demanding a referendum on independence from Kiev.
Yatsenyuk did not meet with representatives of the protesters, nor did he offer any detail on how his vision of devolution differed from that of the separatists.
It came as the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Russia did not want to take over more Ukrainian territory but repeated a call for Kiev to grant more powers to regional authorities. "We want Ukraine to be whole within its current borders, but whole with full respect for the regions," state-run RIA quoted Lavrov as saying.
The officials whom Yatsenyuk met asked him to allow referendums on autonomy for their regions, not on secession.
Meanwhile, on Friday, European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the EU was working on a plan to help Ukraine pay some of its gas bills to Russia, telling Austria's ORF radio there was "no reason to panic" about Russian gas supplies to Europe.
"We are in close contact with Ukraine and its gas company to ensure that Ukraine remains able to pay and the debts that the gas company has to Gazprom do not rise further," he said, adding he would meet Ukraine's energy and foreign ministers on Monday.
"I am preparing a solution that is part of the aid package that the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank is giving to Ukraine and from which payment for open bills will be possible."
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had sent a letter to the leaders of 18 European countries on Thursday warning that Russia could cut gas supplies to Ukraine, leading to a reduction in onward deliveries to EU nations, but said on Friday that Russia would fulfil its obligations to European gas clients.
However, he said an advance payment option remained on the table for Ukraine if it did not end its "absolutely intolerable" failure to pay its debts.
Oettinger had advised against taking the threat to Europe at face value, saying Russia wanted to deliver gas and needed the revenue.
"Part of the bills is justified. Another part is unjustified. We will put together a package in the weeks ahead so that paying the justified open bills will be possible, ... not according to Mr Putin's accounting but rather by what is contractually correct," he said.
On Friday, the Kremlin said the EU had not yet responded to Putin's appeal for talks, adding that any talks with EU leadership on the gas issue would not be "fully fledged" without the participation of countries that buy Russian gas.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also told reporters he did not understand why the US - which has accused Russia of using energy as a tool of coercion - was questioning Moscow's decision to increase the price it charges Ukraine for gas.
Russia has called on Ukraine to change its constitution to become a federalised state in which regions would have more control of their own affairs. Ukraine's government has resisted federalisation, saying that would lay the groundwork for the country's breakup.
The pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk, who have held the regional administration building since Sunday, initially called for a referendum on secession but later reduced the demand to one on autonomy, with the possibility of holding another later on whether the region would remain part of Ukraine or seek to become an autonomous region within Russia.
The Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on Friday again urged Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine's borders, and added that Nato was taking legitimate steps to deal with the instability created by Russia's "illegitimate" actions.
Speaking in Prague, the Czech president, Milos Zeman, called on Nato and the European Union to take robust pre-emptive actions to deter Russia from invading other parts of Ukraine after its takeover of Crimea. He stopped short of giving details.
In a bid to apply pressure on Russia, the European Union has warned Moscow of further sanctions for ratcheting up tensions in Ukraine.
A senior European Union official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the 28-nation bloc's foreign ministers would consider broadening the list of people sanctioned to deter Russia from further destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine.
The official said ministers at next Monday's meeting in Luxembourg were not expected to decide new sanctions but could agree on ordering the preparation of a new list of targets.
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