ENERGY: CHINA AND RUSSIA CLINCH MAJOR GAS DEAL

Beijing, 21 March (AKI) - China and Russia on Tuesday signed major energy cooperation deals during Russian president Vladimir Putin's visit to China, under which Russia will supply the country with up to 80 billion cubic metres of gas annually to China via pipelines from fields in west Siberia and the Russian far east. The pipeline could go on-stream within five years, officials were quoted as saying. But what energy-hungry China really wants but so far did not get, is an elusive deal on a separate pipeline to deliver Siberian oil, which may or may not come out of Putin's visit, analysts say.

The three pipeline deals include a 'principled agreement' between the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and the Russian oil company of Rosneft to form further oil cooperation joint-ventures, a memorandum of understanding between CNPC and Russia's natural gas company Gazprom for natural gas supply to China, and a summary of negotiations between CNPC and the Russian pipeline transport company, Transneft.

The timeframe and the scale of the deal had been agreed with Gazprom and China's oil and gas company, CNPC, but the financial details have still be be negotiated, Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller, said on Tuesday. Prices for the gas sold into China would be pegged to crude and oil product prices, as in Europe, Miller added, but he did not specify how much the pipelines would cost.

Putin and China's president, Hu Jintao, witnessed the signing of the gas accords, as well as 15 economic cooperation agreements, including four relating to the energy sector, inked between the two sides.

Putin is heading a 90-member Russian delegation for a two-day visit to China to attend the China-Russia Economic Forum on Industry and Commerce. The delegation included officials from Russian oil and gas industries and other economic representatives. A strategic and diplomatic relationship going beyond the trade ties between China and Russia could give them real influence in global affairs, according to observers.

Putin and Hu also discussed the fraught question of Iran's nuclear programme, and were quoted as saying they were committed to resolving the issue "through political and diplomatic means." Both countries reportedly objected at Monday's meeting of the UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany over the wording of a draft statement calling on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment activities.

The proposed two-week deadline for the UN nuclear watchdog to report whether Iran has stopped enrichment activities was too short, the two countries said. Both are permanent members of the Security Council - and could in principle veto any resolution against Iran.

Western nations believe Iran's experimental uranium enrichment programme conceals efforts to build nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains its nuclear programme is wholly peaceful. The UN nuclear watchdog referred it to the UN Security Council in February after the watchdog said Iran needed to be more transparent in its cooperation with the agency and its inspectors.