Russia has offered Turkey a role in its South Stream gas pipeline to Europe, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, marking another Russian attempt to undermine the European Union's rival Nabucco project.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Russia's top energy official, told Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız that Turkey is welcome to participate in the South Stream project, which aims to transport Russian gas under the Black Sea through Eastern Europe to Austria and Italy."We hope that the Turkish side will look at our offer and that we will cooperate further so that our offer is more attractive and clear to our partners," Sechin told reporters in Moscow after the meeting with Yıldız, the news agencies reported. He did not give details of what specific role Turkey could play in the planned South Stream pipeline, which in its current form does not cross Turkish territory.Yıldız said Turkey would review all the offers on the table, but added that Nabucco and South Stream were not rivals in Turkey's understanding. "Not one of the projects are being looked at as competitors. Each one has its own course of development," he said, Interfax reported. Sechin did not mince words, however, about the Russian offer's goal of damaging Nabucco's chances of success.Turkey is a crucial partner in the Nabucco project, which Europe is counting on to ease its energy dependence on Russia. Turkish officials have earlier said Russia was welcome to join the Western-backed project, an offer Russia has not responded to so far.Asked about the benefits of Russia's offer over Nabucco, Sechin said, "The clear economic accounting, the coordination of all the factors, and the efficiency should clearly show which project is the best," the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.On Monday, Russia dealt a heavy blow to the Nabucco project by securing supplies of Azerbaijani gas, which has been identified as the main potential source for the EU-backed pipeline. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, speaking on Wednesday evening before departing to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, dismissed that Turkey was concerned about the Russian-Azerbaijani deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) welcomes his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, before their talks in Moscow. "We don't perceive any relationship between our neighbors as disturbing. On the contrary, we believe that as relations between our neighbors enhance, areas of common interest will expand," said Davutoğlu. "We would be pleased to see cooperation in the region expanding, particularly in the field of energy." He further said the Turkish and Russian stances on energy were not "alternative" to each other either, without elaborating.Azerbaijan is one of the main natural gas suppliers for Turkey but relations were strained when Turkey announced a deal with Armenia on normalizing relations, severed by Turkey in 1993 in protest of Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and an adjacent territory in Azerbaijan. Tension eased later when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan traveled to Baku and affirmed relations with Armenia will not be restored unless Armenia withdraws from Nagorno-Karabakh.Talks in MoscowEnergy was one of the issues Davutoğlu and Lavrov discussed in their talks in Moscow on Thursday, which focused on regional issues such as Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, Cyprus and the Middle East conflict as well as economic ties.Turkish-Russian ties have improved drastically over the past years, particularly in line with Turkey's imports of natural gas from Russia. The trade volume between the two countries reached nearly $34 billion in 2008, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Russian natural gas exports to Turkey totaled 24.5 billion cubic meters in 2008, up from 23.5 billion cubic meters in 2007. The statement also said Russia was interested in the construction of a pipeline that will go parallel to the existing Blue Stream pipeline, running from Russia to Turkey beneath the Black Sea. The proposed Blue Stream 2 natural gas pipeline is planned to pump gas from Russia to Israel over Turkey.Davutoğlu's visit to Moscow also came days before a tentatively planned meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders expected to take place in Russia in mid-July. Turkey says Russia is a key player in efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turkey says Russia is a key player in efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia is one of three international mediators in the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the dispute. 03 July 2009, FridayTODAY'S ZAMAN WITH REUTERS  İSTANBUL