Greece and Turkey open pipeline

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From left: Karamanlis, Tayip and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev attend the opening ceremony. (SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayip Erdogan met on the border between their countries to open the US $440 million gas pipeline to the Caspian region.

"Today, we made the first big step for the construction of the North East ring, which will transfer natural gas from the Caspian countries and the Middle East through Turkey, Greece and Italy to central Europe," said Costas Karamanlis, Greek Prime Minister, in a statement.

The 300 km pipeline, set to ease Russia's hold on Europe's energy supplies, will provide the European Union with its first supply of gas from the Caspian region, bypassing Russia and the Middle East. It will link the Greek and Turkish networks, and eventually carry gas from Azerbaijan to Italy.

When the 800 km overland and undersea link to Italy set for completion by 2012, it will reach an annual capacity of 11.6 billion m³ - 70 % of it designated for the Italian market.

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