CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) -Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday he was optimistic of a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to keep Russian gas flowing through Ukraine to several European countries.

The European Union and Ukraine have asked Azerbaijan to facilitate discussions with Russia about a gas transit deal that is set to expire at the end of this year.

Aliyev said he had a “certain optimism” on the latest discussions between Russia and Ukraine, adding: “We think that there is a ground for breakthrough but probably it will be premature for me to go into much detail”.

The Azerbaijani president, who on Thursday met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome in his third visit to the country since 2020, was addressing the TEHA Forum in Cernobbio, Italy, which every September gathers businessmen and policymakers to discuss the geopolitical and economic outlook.

While the EU has cut most of its Russian gas imports, some central European countries, including Austria, still depend on gas from Russia via a pipeline that crosses Ukraine.

“We just want to support those countries and also Ukraine because if the transit stops Ukraine’s gas distribution system will be absolutely paralysed,” Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan plays a major role in the EU’s energy security, Aliyev said, adding that seven of the 10 countries which rely on the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network for their gas supplies are members of the bloc.

“Probably that is why the European Commission calls Azerbaijan a pan-European gas supplier and also a reliable partner,” he said.

Built to diversify the EU’s energy supplies by bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, the Southern Gas Corridor network runs across 3,500 km from Azerbaijan to Italy.

“With extensions and inter-connectors the pipeline covers a broad European and Eurasian geography with a strong potential to grow: because today we’re in … negotiations with at least three European countries with respect to gas supply,” he said.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Giancarlo Navach; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Giulia Segreti, Alex Richardson and Alexander Smith)