MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that forming a natural gas equivalent of the oil producers' cartel OPEC with Iran and possibly other countries was "an interesting idea."

"A gas OPEC is an interesting idea. We're going to think about it," Putin said Thursday.

"At the first stage we are in agreement with Iranian specialists, with Iranian partners, with several other countries that extract and deliver hydrocarbons to the world market in large quantities, above all gas."

Russia's massive gas resources -- nearly 30 percent of known world reserves and 20 percent of world gas production -- has raised fears in the West that it may gain further leverage over energy consumers by coordinating supplies with other gas-rich nations such as Iran and Algeria.

"We already try to coordinate our activities on the markets of these countries... We don't want to create some kind of cartel but it would be right to coordinate our activities, bearing in mind how to solve the main problem -- secure a reliable supply of energy resources to the main consumers."

Iran has the second-largest known gas reserves in the world, while Algeria is the second-biggest supplier of gas to Europe after Russia.

Last March, Algeria granted Gazprom and oil major Lukoil exclusive access to some of its largest oil and gas fields as part of a deal involving Algeria's purchase of 7.5 billion dollars (5.8 billion euros) in Russian arms and a 4.7 billion dollar debt write-off to Algeria.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has previously expressed support for closer coordination of gas production with Russia.