Gas talks on Baku agenda for Medvedev

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A deal to increase the volume of Azeri natural gas to Russia is on the agenda for talks in Baku between the two heads of state, the Kremlin said Thursday.

Azerbaijan started delivering natural gas to Russia in January under the terms of a deal signed in October 2009. The measure calls for the transit of some 70 billion cubic feet per year through 2015.

Gas from Azerbaijan travels through the North Caucasus republics through the Baku-Novo-Filya gas pipeline under the Caspian Sea.

The Kremlin said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to sign off on an agreement to double the amount of gas from Azerbaijan for 2011, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.

Alexei Miller, the chief executive at Russian gas company Gazprom, said earlier this year that his company was ready to buy as much Azeri gas a "as Azerbaijan is ready to deliver."

The agenda of the presidential visit includes talks on demarcating parts of the land border between Azerbaijan, Russian and Georgia. The Russian report said it was unclear if talks would cover the maritime boundaries of the energy-rich Caspian Sea.

Maritime border disputes erupted among the littoral states to the Caspian Sea following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.