Long-term US investment in Russia's energy sector is another priority, Fradkov said, as reported by the Russian news agency Prime- TASS the same day.

"The construction of new pipelines in easterly and northerly directions could be oriented towards the US market," Prime-TASS added.

Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, meanwhile, told reporters that Russia's state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has almost no spare capacity, "so there will be no possibility for oil transportation to rise in the near future". "Transneft plans to pump 238 million tonnes of Russian oil for export in 2004, up from 208 million tonnes in 2003," the report added.

In another announcement, quoted by Prime-TASS, Khristenko said that the feasibility study for an oil pipeline from the eastern Siberian town of Angarsk to the Russian Pacific port of Nakhodka is expected in July.

"According to preliminary estimates, the pipeline's throughput capacity should amount to about 80 million tonnes annually," the report said.

As to a proposed pipeline from Western Siberia to the port of Murmansk on the Barents Sea, Khristenko said that the exact site of the terminal has not been chosen yet.