The EU is bringing together for the first time eight countries from Central Asia and the Middle East in a bid to speed up several gas pipeline projects.

At a summit in Prague, the EU aims to convince the states it is committed to opening a southern corridor for energy supplies that would bypass Russia.
This would be achieved mainly through the long-planned Nabucco pipeline that would bring gas from Central Asia.
There has been growing unease over energy security among EU member states.
A dispute over gas supplies between Russia and Ukraine in January led to shortages for millions across Europe.
--------------- ‘Modern silk road’
They call it the “modern Silk Road”, and there is the promise of untold riches, or at least greater energy security, if the EU succeeds in its quest to open a new “southern corridor” for gas imports.
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Iraq will attend Friday’s meeting in the Czech capital. The US, Russia and Ukraine have been invited to observe.
The summit seeks to end years of haggling over the 3,300km (2,050-mile) Nabucco pipeline by convincing key suppliers like Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan that the EU is a serious customer; promising a quick energy deal with Iraq; and putting pressure on Turkey - which is both the main transit country and an EU candidate - to agree a deal by June.
A Czech official involved in the talks said the EU had no time to lose.
For 15 years, he said, the EU had just been talking and not being serious - now it has to put its money where its mouth is.
Otherwise, he warned, Central Asian countries would be pushed to sell their gas to Russia and energy prices in Europe would skyrocket.
Work is scheduled to start on Nabucco in 2011, with the first gas deliveries expected in 2014. It is expected to cost about 10bn euros (£8.9b; $13.4b) and should supply up to 31bn cubic meters of natural gas annually - no more than 5% of EU gas needs.
The EU will also reiterate at the summit its support for the Inter-Connector pipeline linking Turkey to Italy via Greece, and White Stream, which would run from Georgia to Romania via the Black Sea.
(Source: BBC)