During a three-way summit in the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi, the presidents agreed on pipeline restoration and new construction from Turkmenistan to Russia via Kazakhstan -- a route long favored by Russia.

"We will reconstruct the Caspian shore gas pipeline with a capacity of 10 billion cubic metres (per year) and build a parallel gas pipeline. The corresponding agreement will be signed before this July," Russia's Vladimir Putin said.

Putin said concrete work on the project would begin in the first half of 2008, and would increase capacity along the route by at least 12 billion cubic metres per year by 2012.

The deal represented a major triumph for Moscow, which has long pushed the route over a rival US proposal that would cross the Caspian.