Budapest  - Turkey has accepted a Hungarian proposal to set up an international advocacy body to push for the quick realisation of the planned Nabucco gas pipeline, the head of a Hungarian committee said on Wednesday after talks.

The Turkish parliamentary trade and energy commissioner Soner Aksoy was in Budapest heading his country's delegation for talks with the leaders of the Hungarian parliament's ad hoc Nabucco committee.

After the meeting, the committee chairman Janos Koka told the state news agency MTI that Aksoy had expressed support for Hungary's recent proposal to set up an Nabucco advocacy committee.

The body would try to fire up the necessary political will to get the project, which has been on the drawing board since 2002, off the ground.

Koka said the discussion touched on how to address problems that are currently holding up the Nabucco gas pipeline. The former Hungarian economy minister said that a balance must be struck between the needs of the EU and those of Turkey, which aspires to EU membership.

Turkey has been blamed for holding up the pipeline project with a request that it be allowed to divert 15 per cent of the gas that passes through its territory to provide cheap domestic heating.

The EU backs the Nabucco plan, which aims to reduce what Brussels sees as Europe's over-reliance on Russian energy by bringing in natural gas from the Middle East and Central Asia via Turkey.

Meanwhile Russia is forging ahead with a rival project called South Stream, a joint venture set up by Gazprom and the Italian ENI in 2007, through which Russia aims to pump its gas to Italy.

Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Hungary have all agreed to cooperate with Russia over the pipeline.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany riled many in Brussels last year when he signing up for South Stream and dismissed the Nabucco plan as "a dream", saying "you cannot heat homes with dreams". He has since said he believes there is room in Europe for both projects.

Koka met the Austrian Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein a month ago in Vienna, where both politicians agreed to push for an intergovernmental agreement on the Nabucco project. Bulgaria's Nabucco pipeline envoy Dimiter Ikonomov, in Budapest last week, said he thinks such an agreement is possible in the first half of 2009.

Five energy companies have signed up for the Nabucco project so far: the Austrian energy company OMV and the German RWE, as well as companies in transit countries Hungary (MOL), Turkey (Botas) and Bulgaria (Bulgargaz). It is estimated that the 3,300-kilometre pipeline would cost 7.9 billion euros to build. (dpa)