The capital Tbilisi's electric utility was providing 110 megawatts of electricity, while Azerbaijan was sending in 50 megawatts, Turkey 60 megawatts and Russia 65 megawatts. Still, Georgia needed some 600 megawatts more to ensure a normal electricity supply, the Georgian State Electric System said. Saakashvili cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday to try and assuage anxiety that sent residents into long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters and some even to chop down branches and trees in the capital to fuel stoves. Saakashvili told his Cabinet that Iran had agreed to supply Georgia with gas via Azerbaijan beginning Sunday or at the latest, Monday. "The amount will be enough to restore electric and gas supplies," he said. "Thus we will create a good mechanism of alternative gas sources," Saakashvili said. "And Russia should be aware of this." He said that Iran's price was "acceptable for Georgia," but declined to reveal the amount, saying only that it was lower than Georgian media had reported. There have been media reports that Iran was asking $120 (98 euros) per 1,000 cubic meters -- higher than the $110 (90 euros) Russia is currently charging. The 1991 Soviet collapse, and several years of civil war in the early 1990s, left much of Georgia's energy infrastructure decrepit and in desperate need of repairs, forcing many to rely on generators and wood- and gas-fired heaters and stoves. In recent years, the situation had stabilized with fewer outages and Saakashvili, who came to power on the wave of the 2003 Rose Revolution, had restored optimism for many Georgians. Over the weekend, however, an explosion on a major gas pipeline that runs through the Russian border region of North Ossetia cut supplies to many Georgian regions. Russian authorities blamed the blasts on saboteurs. The misery worsened early Thursday when a fierce windstorm in western Georgia ruptured power lines leading from the Inguri hydroelectric station to eastern regions, leaving about 3 million people in the dark, Deputy Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said. Then, a gas-powered unit of a Tbilisi power station shut down because of malfunctions, leaving most of Tbilisi's 1.5 millions residents -- a third of the country's population -- to scrounge for other heating options as a heavy snow fell and daytime temperatures fell to -8 C (17.6 F) Saakashvili has complained about the slow pace of repairs to the Russian pipeline and hinted that Russia was deliberately stalling to punish the country and its pro-Western policies of recent years -- suspicions shared by many Georgians. "It's an attempt to roll back democratic changes in the country," he said. Russian officials have rejected the allegations, and said the repairs are close to completion. Vladimir Gerasin, an official in the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's southern headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, said the pipeline was tentatively scheduled to resume supplies to Georgia at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) Friday. PIN/AP