President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia should direct future oil and natural gas exports to Asia because "unprincipled competition" had blocked its energy companies from expanding elsewhere.

With the bold warning that Russia has other export options, Putin waded into a debate in Europe over the plans of Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, which is trying to enter the retail gas market.

Putin couched his comments in a discussion of a new trans- Siberian pipeline to ship oil to China, Japan and other Pacific Rim markets. He spoke before a meeting on energy issues with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

This week, the Russian oil pipeline operator Transneft announced that it would break ground Friday on a 2,240-kilometer, or 1,400- mile, pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. The pipeline, which will be able to transport 1.5 million barrels a day, could divert exports to Asia that now go to Europe.

The swagger in Putin's remark suggests his government believes it now has a strong negotiating hand with Europe on energy issues.

After Gazprom briefly cut natural gas exports to Ukraine in January, European leaders have questioned the reliability of Russia as an energy supplier.

It is certainly a large one. At the end of trading Wednesday, the stock market value of Gazprom was $267 billion, more than that of BP, Europe's largest energy company. The value put Gazprom in second place after Exxon Mobil of the United States. Gazprom is now the fourth-largest company in the world after Exxon, General Electric and Microsoft.

"We often encounter unfair competition on international markets," Putin told a business forum held before the meeting with Merkel.

"Despite the great demand for energy resources, attempts are made, under all sorts of pretexts, to restrict us," he said. "We have to remember that the nations of the Asia-Pacific region are developing at an enormous rate, and they need our cooperation."

Merkel, who was brought up in East Germany, has taken a firmer line with Putin than her predecessor, Gerhard Schroder. Still, the German companies E.ON and BASF were expected to sign a big natural gas deal with Gazprom at Tomsk.

Outside of Germany, Gazprom's business is not progressing smoothly.

British news media reported this month that regulators had held eight meetings on how to block a possible bid by Gazprom to buy Centrica, Britain's largest gas distributor.

Thus, Putin's comments about "unprincipled competition" seemed to reflect, in part, the unhappiness of Gazprom executives at this episode, though Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said Wednesday that it would not interfere in a Gazprom bid for Centrica.

Gazprom's deputy director, Aleksandr Medvedev, said Tuesday on the BBC "Hardball" program that Gazprom was considering buying Centrica but that it was not in talks with it.

Because of Gazprom's wealth from energy sales at current high prices, "it is very difficult to find a company which is not on our watch list," Medvedev said.