PRAGUE, March 12 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic is in

talks with the United States for the supply of 1.5 billion cubic

metres of liquefied natural gas, the industry minister was

quoted as saying on Thursday by Hospodarske Noviny.

Like other countries in central and eastern Europe, the

Czech Republic has been diversifying its energy sources since

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to S&P Global

this has also recently helped cushion the blow from the war in

the Middle East.

Czech Industry Minister Karel Havlicek was quoted as saying

he had met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to

discuss the deal, which would involve utility CEZ.

"One of the important missions is to prepare the conditions

for concluding a key contract between the Czech Republic through

CEZ and the United States in the field of LNG," he told

reporters in Washington, according to Hospodarske Noviny.

"We are talking about 1.5 billion cubic metres, which we

would contract for a period of approximately 15 to 20 years."

He said negotiations were underway with the three largest

gas suppliers who operate terminals in the U.S.