06-06-05

Russia may sign accords on energy cooperation with Japan during President Vladimir Putin' visit to Tokyo, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The Japanese are interested in the cooperation and "we are prepared to cooperate with them in the field of energy on terms suiting us," Lavrov told a cabinet session chaired by Putin.

"This line, stretching out to the eastern coast, will substantially broaden our cooperation in this domain, and they are evincing interest in it," Lavrov said of the planned Eastern oil pipeline which the cabinet approved on Dec. 31, 2004.

President Putin told the cabinet that he will meet former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in the near future and discuss with him cooperation in the energy sector. However, Putin insisted that it is necessary for the Japanese side to clarify its interest in the pipeline, saying: "This interest should be more concrete."

"The problem is more or less clear with our Chinese partners, but not everything has been settled yet, and ifJapan is really evincing interest, it should be made more concrete," Putin said.

The design of the pipeline is to be completed in July and a feasibility study of the first lap project will follow suit, according to Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.

Khristenko said at the cabinet meeting that the first lap of the Taishet-Nakhodka oil pipeline will be finished in 2008 and oil firms Surgutneftegaz and Yukos are to pump petroleum into it.

Source: Xinhua