Europeans plan new oil pipeline

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs (left) offered EU support

Five southern European nations have signed a pledge to step up efforts to build an oil pipeline from the Black Sea to Italy.

It should help reduce Europe's reliance on oil from Russia and the Middle East.

The 1,300km (800-mile) Pan-European Pipeline, from Constanta in Romania to Trieste in Italy, will run through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

It should deliver up to 100m tons of oil annually from the Caspian oilfields to Western Europe.

The pipeline is scheduled to be completed in 2012 and will supply refineries in northern Italy and Central Europe with crude oil from the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the estimated cost of building the pipeline would be between $2bn and $3.5 bn (£1bn and £1.8 bn).

The European Union's energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs joined the ministers from Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Romania at a signing ceremony in the Croatian capital Zagreb. He said the pipeline was needed to bypass congestion on the traditional Black Sea route.