The American Energy Secretary, Bill Richardson, is in Turkey for talks on prospective projects for the transport of Caspian oil and gas to western markets through Turkey.

Mr Richardson reaffirmed US support for the construction of an oil pipline from the Azeri capital, Baku, to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The Turkish Energy Minister, Cumhur Ersumer, said ahead of his talks with Mr Richardson later today, the fighting in Dagestan showed how relatively secure the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline would be.

The Baku-Ceyhan proposal is one of the three the other two being to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and the Georgian of Supsa to be recommended to the Azeri government by the international consortium Azeri International Operating Consortium exploiting the Caspian oil fields as the main export route. Later in the week Mr Richardson will travel to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, locked in a territorial dispute over the Caspian seabed.