Riga  - A cable linking the energy grids of the Baltic states with Sweden could be a reality within ten years, said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in Riga on Friday.

Bildt, speaking after a meeting with his Latvian counterpart Maris Riekstins, said the Swedish presidency of the EU in the second half of 2009 would be characterised by ambitious plans for political and economic cooperation within the Baltic Sea area.

Currently both Lithuania and Latvia have competing claims for an underwater cable across the Baltic Sea to Sweden.

The electricity systems bequeathed to the Baltics by 50 years of Soviet occupation which ended in 1991 have hindered attempts at full energy integration.

Currently, a cable from Estonia to Finland called Estlink is the only major connection joining the Baltics to the Nordic grid.

Comparing the "energy bridge" project from Sweden to the Baltics with the proposed Nord Stream pipeline that is planned to pump gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, Bildt said an electricity cable would be "less intrusive on the environment than two big pipelines."

"There is still an environmental certification process but I wouldn't talk about 10-year perspectives. It's substantially less," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that it was up to Lithuania and Latvia to decide where the link made landfall.

"For us it's not a question of linking up with Lithuania or Latvia, it's a question of linking up with an integrated Baltic market," Bildt said.

Both ministers stressed the need to develop what Riekstins described as a "fully integrated, transparent and open" regional energy market.

"That would be to the benefit of the Baltic countries and the Nordic countries," Bildt said.

Other topics discussed during the meeting included Sweden's financial assistance to Latvia, given as part of a 7.5-billion-euro (9.5-billion-dollar) economic bailout brokered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF announced Thursday that it will despatch a mission to Latvia on February 17.

The purpose is "to review the status of the Latvian economy and of the measures agreed with the authorities," an IMF spokesperson said. (dpa)