Meeting in Ankara, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to agreement on Moscow's request to route its South Stream gas pipeline through Turkey's territorial waters.

"The South Stream pipeline is a much needed project that is particularly important in the context of ensuring the energy security of the whole of Europe and the development of a broad range of ties between Russia and Turkey," Putin said. "Our negotiations showed that we can find solutions, together with the Turkish leadership, that open the way to new, large-scale energy projects."

Among the deals signed by Putin and Erdogan are cooperation accords in a number of fields, ranging from customs and agriculture to education and culture, and also on nuclear energy, including construction of Turkey's first NNP by a Russian-Turkish consortium.

Russia and Turkey will also build the second leg of the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline, linking the two countries via the Black Sea, to export Russian gas to Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus via Turkey.