ATHENS, Sept 4: Russia on Monday agreed with Greece and Bulgaria to speed up preparations for a new 280-kilometre Balkan pipeline transporting Russian oil to Europe and the United States, a project stalled for the past 13 years.

“We have set a timetable... to sign (the relevant) agreement in 2006,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told a news conference, after holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov in Athens.

Originally drawn up in 1993, the plan envisages transporting Russian oil by sea to the Bulgarian port of Burgas, and from there by pipeline to the Greek Aegean Sea port of Alexandroupolis.

A declaration signed by the three leaders on Monday pledges to speed up the process to create a project company, and to have a tripartite state agreement signed in the next three months.

With an estimated cost of $1.15 billion the pipeline aims at reducing the expense and time of transporting Russian oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe and the United States.

Oil tankers currently have to negotiate the narrow Bosphorus Straits, where increasing traffic has raised concerns over congestion.

Putin on Monday displayed dismay with the long delay in getting the project started, noting the “acute” competition present in the energy sector.

He pointed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a major US-backed project that bypasses Russia, and was inaugurated in July by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.—AFP