China's Hu kicks off tour of energy-rich Central Asia

Chinese President Hu Jintao opened the Kazakh section of a gas pipeline from Central Asia on Saturday, as he kicked off a tour highlighting Beijing's growing influence over the region's energy resources.

Hu attended a ceremony at the headquarters of Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGaz, smiling broadly as he pressed a button symbolically opening the Kazakh section of a pipeline that will deliver Turkmen natural gas to China's western Xinjiang province.

"With the launch of this pipeline, it is like the ancient Silk Road has been restored," said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, referring to a mediaeval trading route linking East and West.

Addressing workers, who were putting in place the final weld on the pipeline in the steppes on the Kazakh border, via video link, he added:

"This pipeline will be beneficial for all of our countries. It is a promising, strategic project."

Speaking to reporters after the talks with his host, China's Hu said the two leaders pledged to deepen cooperation in the energy sphere.

Hu said one of the key priorities for the two nations was "to support close ties at the high and highest levels (and) deepen mutual understanding and trust."

On Monday, Hu, Nazarbayev, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will attend the official opening of the 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) pipeline in Turkmenistan.

The pipeline, the first major export route for Central Asian natural gas to China, is seen as the culmination of years of quiet diplomacy by Beijing to gain access to the region's vast energy supplies.

Central Asia, a vast resource-rich region wedged between Afghanistan, China Russia and Iran, has been dominated by Moscow since the Kremlin's imperial expansion in the 19th century.

But Moscow has struggled to maintain its influence over the region in recent years, especially as its coffers have been depleted by the global financial crisis, which has buffeted Russia's commodities-driven economy.

China has taken advantage of recent Russian foreign policy stumbles in Central Asia to boost its own influence, said Sarah Michaels, senior editor for the ex-Soviet Union at Oxford Analytica, a Britain-based think tank.

"China's increasing presence in Central Asia is more the result of Russia's foreign policy missteps than a directed strategy by Beijing for engaging with its neighbours," she said.

Beijing has spent heavily across Central Asia this year, including a 10 billion dollar (6.78 billion euros) loan to Astana as part of a deal that saw it take an increasingly prominent stake in Kazakhstan's vital energy sector.

But the soon-to-open natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, which represents years of quiet lobbying and public spending, is the crown jewel in Beijing's Central Asia policy.

Turkmenistan, an energy-rich but isolated ex-Soviet nation, is believed to have some of the biggest gas reserves in the world, nearly all of which is currently exported to Russia via a network of ageing Soviet-era pipelines.

A pipeline explosion earlier this year sparked a row with Russian energy giant Gazprom that saw exports of Turkmen natural gas almost completely cut off, prompting Ashgabat to accelerate efforts to secure alternative routes.

The EU has been anxious to exploit the rift to secure Ashgabat's cooperation in a direct export pipeline to help ease Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas supplies, but has struggled to win concessions.

China has been quick to act in its stead, lending Ashgabat four billion dollars (2.71 billion euros) earlier this year and moving ahead on the new pipeline.

The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas per year through the pipeline, the Turkmen government has said.