BERLIN - Germany has commissioned its gas market trading hub to buy natural liquid gas for 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion) outside Russia despite Moscow having met all obligations from supply contracts so far, the economy ministry said on Wednesday.

"It is now a matter of deciding where to buy the gas. I don't want to commit myself to a specific number of days, but it will happen at very short notice," a ministry spokesperson told a regular news conference.

($1 = 0.9010 euros)

(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska and Miranda Murray, editing by Emma Thomasson)