WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- The European Union, gazing hungrily at Central Asia's vast oil and natural gas deposits, has long sought to weaken Russia's grip over Caspian exports. Now the EU has succeeded in getting its nose under the Turkmen tent, and in Moscow Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller must be drowning his sorrows, as Russia provides about 40 percent of the EU's natural gas imports.

On April 9-10 an EU delegation consisting of Pierre Morel, the EU's special envoy for Central Asia, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and EU External Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner held talks with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and emerged with an agreement that provides for 10 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to the EU starting in 2009.

The meetings, which also included the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were held under the auspices of the EU Central Asia Strategy, formulated last year, designed to develop relations between the EU and post-Soviet Central Asian nations.

The meeting was driven by the 27-nation EU's soaring demand for natural gas, which is expected to grow to 536 billion cubic meters by 2010 and 619 bcm a decade later.

At a news conference following the meetings, Kouchner said that when France assumed the EU presidency energy will become the main priority of EU policy.