The European Union and Turkey aim to sign an agreement on the transit of gas from central Asia by June, in a move aimed at easing the way for the EUR7.9 billion Nabucco pipeline, a draft of the conclusions to be adopted at a summit Friday shows.
The participants to the Prague summit will "agree to strongly support" E.U. countries involved and Turkey to finish negotiations on an intergovernmental agreement on Nabucco as soon as possible, and to have it signed by next month, the draft document, which could change before its final adoption, reads.
Representatives from the European Commission, some E.U. member states, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and central Asian countries will meet Friday in Prague to discuss the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, an E.U. plan to boost gas imports from those regions, mainly by building pipelines.
The E.U. wants to reduce dependency on Russian gas by diversifying its import sources, and get to Central Asian gas before this is sold to Russia itself, if not to China.
The 3,300-kilometer Nabucco, which would bring gas from Turkey to Austria, is one of the Commission's most politically important projects, but experts have questioned its feasibility and the availability of gas to fill it.
The draft says leaders will also agree to work towards an international accord on ITGI - a smaller and partly rival project to Nabucco - by the end of the year.
In this case gas producing countries are also involved. ITGI would bring central Asian gas to Italy, through Turkey and Greece.
The summit will also agree to support, politically as well as technically and financially if possible, a link between the two sides of the Caspian Sea, which would allow gas to be exported from such countries as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan towards Europe.