BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The European Commission is

discussing a proposal to bring forward a ban on Russian

liquefied natural gas in a new package of sanctions against

Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, an EU official said.

The new push follows a call between European Commission chief

Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Europe to play a more robust

role in helping to end Russia's war in Ukraine, with a peace

deal seemingly elusive despite repeated threats of harsher

penalties on Moscow and partners.

Trump's demands include that European nations halt all

Russian oil purchases and that the bloc impose tariffs on China

and India, both big buyers of Russian fossil fuels. He has also

piled pressure on the Group of Seven nations (G7) and NATO,

which includes Russian oil buyer Turkey.

The EU is already negotiating proposals to completely phase out

imports of Russian oil and gas by January 1, 2028, with a ban on

short-term contracts kicking in from next year.

The new sanctions, which will be the EU's 19th package of

sanctions against Russia since the war with Ukraine began, is

due to be presented to member states on Friday, the EU official

and diplomats said. The package had been expected as early as

last Friday after a high-level EU trip to Washington and efforts

at coordination delayed it a week.

The Commission shelved plans earlier this year to sanction

LNG imports and instead the EU banned Russian LNG

trans-shipments at EU ports in a sanctions package.

About 19% of Europe's gas still comes from Russia, via the

TurkStream pipeline and LNG shipments, down from roughly 45%

before 2022. Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import

Russian LNG. Gas piped via TurkStream goes to Slovakia, Hungary

and Bulgaria.

France's Totalenergies declined to comment on the

ongoing discussions. Last week, Totalenergies CEO Patrick

Pouyanne said Russian gas was needed until end 2027 "then we can

exit from that because we can source it from other places

without impact on the price."

TurkStream remains the only pipeline carrying Russian gas to

Europe after blasts stopped exports via the Nord Stream 1

pipelines in September 2022 and after transit via Ukraine was

halted on January 1.