Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will...

According to the press service of the Russian government, Kosor will discuss among other issues a possibility of Croatia joining the South Stream gas pipeline project.

The South Stream project, designed to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, involves Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

The pipeline"s capacity could be eventually increased to 63 billion cubic meters annually. The gas pipeline is expected to start operating in late 2015.

The project is part of Russia"s efforts to cut dependence on transit nations. It is a rival project to the EU-backed Nabucco, which would bypass Russia.

MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti)