SOFIA, Bulgaria -- European governments and gas consumers must back the Nabucco gas pipeline with cash and contracts now if Europe is to cut its reliance on Russian gas, an energy security conference heard Friday.

The EU-backed 7.9 billion euro ($10.4 billion) project to pump gas from the Caspian region via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria needs to quickly become a reality after years of squabbling over terms.

"It is time for the poker game to end and decisions to be made," Jeremy Ellis, head of business development at RWE Supply and Trading, a Nabucco shareholder, told the forum.

"Europe and Turkey must now show their hands; the supply countries and investors will not wait forever. ... The gas reserves in the Middle East and the Caspian offer an opportunity for opening the southern corridor."

Gazprom, which is planning its own northern and southern pipelines to bypass transit countries and bring gas to Europe, also criticized the EU for not doing enough to commit to diversification of routes.

"We need clear signals from consumers about where, when and what quantities they want of additional gas," said Stanislav Tsygankov, head of external relations at Gazprom. "If Europe is in doubt about the long-term need, we are ready to turn to Asian markets," he told the Sofia summit.

Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko later told reporters that Moscow was not afraid of competition from Nabucco because the European project had taken so long. "South Stream is much further down the line in terms of preparation than Nabucco," he said.

Four months after a cutoff of Russian supplies to Europe that idled factories and left thousands of people without heating, the bloc has done little to line up supplies and reach any political and financial agreement on Nabucco.

It has secured only one-fifth of the gas needed to be viable.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the forum that he was keen to see work advancing rapidly. But the EU has so far not given Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and other potential suppliers an incentive to supply the project.

Suppliers, however, warned that time was running out as competition for resources from the Central Asian region was growing, with Russia, China and Iran buying up the available gas.

The forum in Sofia, designed to speed up work, achieved little on a political level because of the absence of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and presidents of Caspian countries.

Analysts have said Central Asian producers, fearing Russia's anger, would be reluctant to make any promises for Nabucco on paper unless Brussels presented them with a set of guarantees on its timing, transit arrangements and financing.

Critics say the EU is reluctant to put in as much cash and diplomatic resolve as Russia or China have used to promote their own projects.