( Reuters ) - Kyrgyzstan asked Beijing on Wednesday to route a proposed new natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via its territory on its way to China.
China, increasingly active in ex-Soviet Central Asia, and Turkmenistan agreed in June last year to build the pipeline by 2009 and pump 30 billion cubic metres of gas to China annually through third nations including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, speaking after talks with visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao, said Kyrgyzstan also wanted to take part in the project.
" China wants to import gas from Turkmenistan. We asked them to build the gas pipeline through Kyrgyzstan's territory," Atambayev told reporters.
Hu's reaction to the proposal was not immediately clear. He was in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which starts on Thursday and held talks with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening of his talks with Atambayev, Hu provided little insight into what form of cooperation China was aiming for with Kyrgyzstan. ADVERTISEMENT
"My talks with Bakiyev were friendly yesterday. We exchanged opinions on bilateral issues and other international and regional matters that are of interest to both of us," he said.
Turkmenistan and China have not disclosed their preferred route of the pipeline.
Kyrgyzstan, a predominantly mountainous country, is not ideal for pipelines although a Soviet-era gas pipeline from the Uzbek city of Bukhara cuts into a small part of Kyrgyzstan near the capital Bishkek before continuing to Almaty in Kazakhstan.
Turkmenistan, the second-largest producer and exporter of gas in the former Soviet bloc after Russia, relies on Russian gas monopoly Gazprom to pipe its gas to customers in Europe, mainly Russia and Ukraine.
It exports about 50 billion cubic metres to Russia a year as well as a small amount of gas to neighbouring Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also due to arrive in Bishkek later in the day for the SCO summit.
The SCO -- grouping China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- says it is dedicated to fighting terrorism and promoting security in Central Asia, but some see it as an attempt to couter U.S. influence in the region.