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Turkmenistan, Europe plan Nabucco talks

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The Nabucco gas pipeline to Europe is at the top of the agenda for a Feb. 13 meeting in Turkmenistan by the president of the European Council.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was invited to attend the meeting in Ashgabat next Friday. Mirek Topolanek, the Czech premier and head of the European Council, said he would discuss Turkmenistan's cooperation in the $10.7 billion project, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

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The planned 2,051-mile artery would carry natural gas from potential suppliers in Central Asia and the Middle East to travel through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.

Construction has been tentatively scheduled to begin in 2010.

Interested parties to the project, which is viewed as a partial solution to Europe's energy diversity woes, expressed their commitment for the project during a Jan. 28 meeting in Budapest, Hungary.

A declaration signed in Budapest offered support for the conference in Turkmenistan, a potential supplier, and a later summit in Bulgaria, a potential host.

The Czech presidency of the European Union agreed to organize a May 7 conference and put an intergovernmental agreement on the agenda for a later conference in Turkey, which would host a major leg of Nabucco.

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