BAKU -- Greece plans to begin importing natural gas from the BP-led Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea within three years, a top manager with the Greek state-owned gas company said Friday.

"Greece will start importing Azeri gas in 2006," Vasilios Tsompanopoulos, general manager of Greece's Public Gas Corporation, or DEPA, told reporters during a visit to Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. "The volumes will start off small and will gradually build up to between two and three billion cubic meters a year and in the long term they could be increased even further."

Tsompanopoulos said some of the gas would be used for Greece's domestic consumption and the rest would be exported to other European countries. The Shah Deniz field lies in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea.

He said the deal on the gas purchase was still being finalized but he added it was possible an agreement will be signed as soon as June when Greek officials visit Baku again.

The deal with DEPA is a much-needed boost for the BP-led consortium behind the Shah Deniz field. The project to develop the field has been dogged by doubts about its commercial viability.

Turkey is committed to buying six billion cubic meters of Shah Deniz gas a year but with that country's economy depressed, many analysts have expressed doubts that commitment will be honored.

But after long deliberation, the Shah Deniz consortium gave the go-ahead for the project at the end of February.

St a cost of $3.2 billion (2.96 billion euros) the consortium plans to begin production from the Shah Deniz field and build a pipeline to export the gas to the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum.

The consortium members are BP, which is the operator, Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, Statoil, TotalFinaElf, Nico, TPAO and Lukagip. To reach Greece, the gas will be shipped through Turkey's domestic pipeline network then through a planned undersea pipeline connecting the two countries. (AFP)