"I believe that today we have taken steps in the right direction. In other words, there was convergence of the position on most of the issues we discussed," Sefcovic told a news conference after a third round of trilateral talks in Brussels.

Sefcovic said the sides had agreed that a future contract should be based on EU law and EU rules and it was important that Ukraine's Naftogaz would be unbundled, creating a new company to handle transit of gas through Ukraine.

"We agreed ... that we would resume our meeting at the political level by the end of October, when I hope we will have much more progress achieved on the issues that we put on the table today."

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Chris Reese)