Gazprom in Serbia on South Stream talks

BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Top directors from Russian energy giant Gazprom met Tuesday with Serbian officials to pave the way for the South Stream natural gas pipeline, executives said.

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and Serbian President Boris Tadic discussed a draft agreement on the construction of the South Stream natural gas pipeline, Gazprom said in a news release Tuesday. The South Stream pipeline will create an energy corridor across the Balkans bringing natural gas from Russia to Italy.

"The Russian and the Serbian parties confirmed their commitment to the arrangements fixed in the intergovernmental agreements of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, as well as agreed upon all the fundamental issues related to documents signing at the corporate level," Miller said.

Serbia in January approved a measure giving Gazprom a majority stake in its state-owned firm, known by its Serbian acronym NIS, in exchange for plans to include Serbia in South Stream.

The deals are largely symbolic, as both countries are longtime allies. Negotiations are expected to conclude by the end of the year.