Rome, May 24 (IANS): Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has lobbied his Bulgarian counterpart Kiril Petkov on Italy's proposal to set a cap on natural gas prices amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Energy prices were the central topic of conversation between the two leaders during their hour-long meeting in Rome, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the statements from the offices of both leaders.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has sparked a dramatic surge in natural gas prices, leading to higher energy, transport, and manufacturing costs in Europe. Before the start of the conflict, Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe.

In April, Italy began floating the idea of imposing a cap on wholesale natural gas prices to limit the economic impact of the crisis. Carlo Bonomi, president of the Italian industrial association Confindustria, said on April 12 that the Italian government should unilaterally impose such a cap if the European Union (EU) refused to do so.

Nearly a month ago, Bulgaria and Poland became the first two EU member states to have their gas supply cut off by Russia.

At Monday's meeting, the leaders also discussed the military situation in Ukraine, efforts to avert a global food crisis as a result of the conflict, prospects for enlarging the EU, and further bilateral cooperation between the two countries.