Italy's foreign minister visited Algeria accompanied by a delegation, including Claudio Descalzi, head of Italian energy giant Eni, for talks on increasing gas supplies to compensate for a possible drop in Russian supplies over the Ukraine conflict.

Luigi Di Maio announced his intention to meet his Algerian counterpart and top officials to strengthen bilateral cooperation to address European energy security needs.

Russia last week invaded its pro-Western neighbour, prompting international outrage and causing the United States and its allies to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Algerian state energy giant Sonatrach has said it was ready to increase gas supplies to Europe, notably via the Transmed pipeline linking Algeria to Italy. Algerian gas accounts for about 11% of Europe's gas imports. Eni is Sonatrach’s partner.

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi has called for Italy to move quickly to diversify its sources of energy to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Italy imports around 95% of the gas it uses, and around 45% of that comes from Russia. He has also said that supplies could be increased Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Libya.