MOSCOW, Oct 31: A senior Russian parliamentarian has called for a gas alliance to unite former Soviet republics and Iran to help Russia stand up to the European Union's `cartel’ of gas consumers, Russian media reported.

“It is necessary to form a gas alliance, which could be joined by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,” the head of the Russian parliament's energy committee Valery Yazev said on Monday.

“Tomorrow, with the removal of the problem of Iran's nuclear program, I would also see Iran in this alliance,” said Mr Yazev, speaking at a meeting of the Russian Gas Union industry group, which he also heads.

He said that the alliance would form a counterweight to the European Union, which he suggested is taking advantage of its position as a vital source of income for Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom.

“In the EU we have a very clearly formed cartel of customers of Russian gas, which is imposing on us the ratification of the Energy Charter, which does not meet Russian interests,” he said.

The EU, which imports around a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, has been seeking to persuade Moscow to ratify an international energy charter that regulates transit and investment in the energy sector and would allow for market competition between foreign and independent companies.

Russia has declined to ratify the charter because the Kremlin wants to protect Gazprom's monopoly and has sought recently to exclude foreign investors from its strategic energy sector.

Gazprom, which is moving aggressively to gain greater access to Europe's downstream energy retail market, has complained of unfair treatment from wary European regulators.

Yazev said the alliance would consist of nongovernmental organizations like his Russian Gas Union, which would coordinate export policies and act as a counterweight to the energy alliance being formed by France and Germany, the Kommersant business daily reported.

He said the original idea for the alliance came from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but was put on ice to avoid aggravating Western partners ahead of this year's G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Kommersant said.

During a trip to Moscow in April, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi proposed the creation of a “Russia-Iran 'oil and gas arc' to unite the energies of our energy-rich countries,” Itar-Tass reported. —AFP