EU nations and Turkey said on Friday they will sign a key intergovernmental agreement in Ankara on July 13 on Europe's flagship Nabucco gas pipeline project, but key issues still need to be resolved.

Turkish officials said that invitations had been sent to the relevant parties and one official in Ankara said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would host the signing ceremony, according to a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on a visit to Romania that Nabucco, which is planned to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas imports, was a "priority" and a "very important, strategic project" for his country.

He added that it would "ensure co-operation between the participating states and will solve the general energy problem that faces mankind."

The European Commission, which is not a signatory to the agreement but has been a key proponent of the pipeline and could sign up as an observer once legal details are ironed out it, confirmed that it had been invited.

"The commission has received an invitation to the signing ceremony of the intergovernmental agreement on the Nabucco pipeline on July 13 in Ankara," a spokesman on energy issues said.

He declined to provide details about the agreement, saying only that it would provide a legal framework including deciding on the allocation of gas for each country that the pipeline would go through.

The agreement is due to be signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, all the countries through which Nabucco will flow.

The 3,300km pipeline is to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria while bypassing Russia - the main source of Europe's gas.

The project is planned to become operational in 2014 and estimated to cost 7.9 billion euros ($10.6 billion). – TradeArabia News Service