ANKARA, Turkey -- Representatives from Turkey, Turkmenistan, Iran, Russia and Kazakhstan met Tuesday for talks on financing a $6 billion pipeline to carry Turkmen gas to Europe via Iran and Turkey.


"Iran has assured the transit of the natural gas through its soil, and Turkey has given assurances that it will buy gas ... the project is now at the stage where actual realization can begin," said Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, who chaired the Ankara sessions for the 4,000 kilometer pipeline.


"We have just created the Turkmenistan Transcontinental Pipeline Company, which will be responsible for the concrete actions to develop the project -- the key issue is now financing," said Turkmen Oil and Gas Minister Khyakim Ishanov.


The project is key for the survival of Turkmenistan's gas industry, which has had trouble reaching lucrative export markets because Russian natural gas giant Gazprom controls all the existing pipelines.


Ishanov said Turkmenistan had some 20 trillion cubic meters in natural gas reserves, and that there had been great interest in the project, given a future shortage in worldwide supplies.


Project financiers said the parties had now begun to take steps to secure funds for the pipeline.


"We initiated negotiations but it will be a good few months before anything comes of it," said David Nicholl, chief financial adviser at U.S.-CIS International, which is supervising project funding. "Finance will be the most difficult problem."


He estimated funding requirements of the pipeline to the eastern Turkish town of Dogubeyazit at $2.56 billion.


Turkey's state pipeline company Botas has said it will raise the money for the Turkish side.