The six-nation natural gas pipeline project Nabucco is «crowded enough» and there is no need at present to discuss a seventh partner, the head of Turkey's state gas pipeline company Botas said yesterday. Gaz de France said earlier in the day that it was still ready to join if the consortium behind the Nabucco pipeline, which is designed to help Europe diversify its gas imports away from Russia, backed its participation. Turkey has blocked the involvement of Gaz de France because of the French National Assembly's approval of a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I. The project aims to carry natural gas from the Caspian basin via Turkey and the Balkans to Central Europe.
(Kathimerini, 28/2/2008)