MOSCOW, Nov 6: Dutch gas company Gasunie on Tuesday signed a deal with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom to help build a controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany beneath the Baltic Sea, Gazprom said.

The agreement gives Gasunie a nine per cent stake in the Nord Stream consortium, which is planning a 1,200-km undersea pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany, Gazprom said in a statement.

Gazprom controls 51 per cent of the pipeline, which it plans to use to supply energy-hungry Western Europe when it is completed in 2010, the statement said. German firms BASF and EON now control 20 per cent each, the statement said.

Under the deal signed in Moscow, Gazprom also gets an option on nine per cent of the recently built BBL gas pipeline linking Britain and Holland.

Sweden and Estonia have objected to the project citing environmental concerns. Poland, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, objects to the fact that it is being bypassed by the new pipeline.

The deal was signed by Gazunie CEO Marcel Kramer and Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller at a ceremony attended by Dutch Prime Minister and Russian President.—AFP