Turkmenistan to sue Azerbaijan over Caspian fields

ASHGABAT, July 24 - Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Friday ordered his cabinet to take Azerbaijan to an international court over disputed Caspian gas fields in a move that could jeopardise the Nabucco pipeline project.

The European Union hopes Turkmenistan will supply the planned Nabucco pipeline bypassing Russia but that requires building a new link to transit the gas through Azerbaijan, another potential supplier.

"...I assign to you the task of... filing a request to an international arbitrage court regarding the disputed Caspian fields," Berdymukhamedov, shown on state television late on Friday, told Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have long disputed the ownership of several Caspian oil and gas fields such as Serdar, which Azerbaijan calls Kyapaz, and Osman, to which Baku refers as Chirag and which it has contracted to BP <BP.L>.

The latest round of talks took place last week.

"We have held talks with Azerbaijan 16 times but still could not resolve this issue," Berdymukhamedov said.

"We are ready to accept any decision of an international court."

Of the five Caspian states, only Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have agreed between each other on the borders of their respective sectors since the fall of the Soviet Union.