"I have met with all the representatives of (Russia's) Gazprom, Ruhrgaz and BASF (of Germany). They assured me that construction will not begin in the Baltic Sea until ecological and environmental concerns have been answered," Piebalgs, a Latvian national, told journalists in the Polish capital, Warsaw.

The former Soviet Union dumped tonnes of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea following World War II and construction of the underwater pipeline could disturb them, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Poland have warned.

Polish Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak said Monday: "Neither the quantity of weapons or where exactly they are is known."

The Baltic states and Poland are also opposed to the pipeline because they fear it could compromise their energy security and because they were left out of the project, which bypasses their national territory, depriving them of potentially lucrative transit fees.

With the blessing of Russian and German political leaders, Gazprom, BASF and E.ON agreed in September to build the 1,200-kilometre (740-mile) pipeline under the Baltic Sea to carry Russian gas directly to Germany.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in July 2010.

The initial capacity would be 27.5 billion cubic metres (962.5 billion cubic feet) of gas per year, which would be increased to 55 billion cubic metres in 2012.

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