Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov on Thursday played down hopes his country could supply natural gas for a planned pipeline to Europe bypassing Russia in the Nabucco project.
"When we talk about Europe's energy security and the export of Central Asian gas...to Europe, this question is not in Uzbekistan's plans," Karimov said after meeting Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov.
Direct gas exports to the European Union were "beyond the scope" of Uzbekistan, Karimov said.
Parvanov was in Uzbekistan to promote the Nabucco gas pipeline, designed to carry Central Asian gas directly to Europe, bypassing Russian control.
Backers of the route, which would run from the Caspian region through Turkey to central Europe, have focused their efforts on securing gas supply pledges from regional energy heavyweight Turkmenistan.
Landlocked Uzbekistan lies to the east of the Caspian Sea wedged between Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
"We only export our gas to Russia and Russia then exports it where it wants because we only have one pipeline," Karimov said, referring to the country's Soviet-era export route.
However Karimov, who has relatively close ties with Russia, warned Moscow it shouldn't use its export monopoly to "dictate or exert pressure on gas prices."
Uzbekistan currently exports 17 billion cubic meters of gas a year, a figure that will likely soon grow to 25 billion, Karimov said. In 2007, Turkmenistan exported 50 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia.
In September, Russia and Uzbekistan agreed to build a new pipeline to carry gas from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan to Russia.