President Vladimir Putin issued instructions Monday to look at ways of bringing Uzbekistan into a project to build a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast.

"It [the matter] should be taken up with [our] Kazakh friends, as well as with Turkmenistan [who participate in the project], Putin told First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a Cabinet session.

The matter was raised following a report by the other first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, on his recent visit to Uzbekistan, RIA Novosti reported.

"As far as I could see from your report, Uzbekistan is on the whole favorably disposed toward the idea of joining the Caspian gas pipeline," Putin said.

Ivanov said he had discussed energy matters in detail with Uzbek authorities, in particular the creation of a second branch line with a capacity of 20 billion cubic meters a year.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan agreed, in May, to build a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast and will sign the deal by September. The pipeline will run from Turkmenistan along the Caspian coast of Kazakhstan and onto Russia, the sole re-exporter of the Turkmen gas. It is a rival project to a U.S.-sponsored Trans-Caspian pipeline under the Caspian Sea to carry Turkmen gas to southern Europe bypassing Russia.

Following their summit in Turkmenistan, Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov directed their governments to start the construction of the pipeline in the second half of 2008.

Putin said earlier the new project and the restoration of Soviet-era Central Asian pipelines leading to Russia would make it possible to increase transportation by at least 12 billion cubic meters by 2012.

Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP], said the two projects would help increase supplies of Turkmen gas to 80 billion cu m a year within the Russia-Turkmenistan contract until 2028.

In September, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on terms of Turkmen gas supplies for 2007-2009 at a price of US$100 per 1,000 cu m and set the volume at 50 billion cu m a year.

Despite the agreement on the Caspian pipeline, Turkmenistan’s president, however, said that the Trans-Caspian project bypassing Russia remained on the agenda.