North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has promised to provide land for a Russian plan to build a trans-Korean gas pipeline to ship natural gas to South Korea if Moscow and Seoul agree to the gas pipeline deal, Kyodo News quoted a senior Russian official as saying Friday.

The Russian pipeline project was discussed at the meeting between Kim and Russia 's President Dmitry Medvedev in eastern Siberia on Wednesday.

Viktor Ishayev, Russia's presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District, told reporters in Khabarovsk that he was on Kim's train for the entire length of his six-day visit to Siberia by the Trans-Siberian Railway for the summit with Medvedev.

Ishayev said he had several rounds of talks with Kim, mainly on economic matters, while Kim's train was moving through Russian territory.

Kim expressed interest in opening North Korean beer plants and Korean restaurants in the Far East Federal District and using North Korean labor for farmland work there, Ishaev said.

Medvedev told reporters after meeting Kim on Wednesday that they had agreed to set up a special commission to study modalities of cooperation in the gas pipeline project.

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