"The laying of an underwater gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea is a very complicated undertaking and requires utmost public attention," Estonian President Arnold Ruutel told journalists.

"All the countries around the Baltic Sea should be involved, as the project entails big environmental hazards," Ruutel said after meeting with his Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts near Tallinn.

"The Baltic states as members of the EU are justified in raising the issue on a wider scale," Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said.

The Soviets dumped tonnes of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea following World War II that which could be disturbed by the construction of the underwater pipeline.

The dumping sites of the chemical weapons are known, but loads were often dumped into the sea in a haphazard way in the post-war period, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told a separate press briefing.

"About 300,000 tonnes of chemical weapons have been dumped in the Baltic Sea, including 50,000 tonnes of poisonous chemicals," Ansip said.

"To dissolve these would sweep life out of the Baltic Sea," he said, adding: "It seems to me Germany has not realized the environmental risks the ... pipeline poses."

The planned pipeline will be 1,200 kilometres (740 miles) long.

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