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Azerbaijan is making every effort to boost Europe`s energy security and counting on exports of its gas to European markets through Greece, President Ilham Aliyev said in Athens on Monday.
"Azerbaijan`s natural gas has been supplied to the Greek market and further to [other parts of] Europe for over a year. It is beyond a doubt that much more can be done in this direction," Russian RIA Novosti news agency quoted Aliyev as saying after meeting his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias.
Greece intends to sign a bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan on direct purchases of gas, Greek Prime Minister Konstandinos Karamanlis has said.
"We are ready to sign commercial contracts on the supplies of natural gas directly from Azerbaijan," Karamanlis told a joint business forum on Tuesday. He did not specify when the planned deal would be signed.
Karamanlis said further that Greece was seeking to buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the resource-rich South Caucasus republic. The volume will be used to meet domestic demand until the Turkey-Greece-Italy (TGI) gas pipeline becomes operational.
The Greek premier reiterated that Athens was interested in implementing the project on the planned TGI conduit that will pump gas, including that from Azerbaijan, to European markets.
Azerbaijan, Turkey, Greece and Italy are participating in a joint project on a transit gas pipeline that is to link Turkey with western Europe and become one of the five main routes for gas transportation in the European Union. The project also aims to turn the mentioned three European countries into major transit states for transporting natural gas from the Caspian basin, the Middle East and northern Africa.
Azerbaijan produces most of its gas from the major Shahdaniz field in the Caspian Sea. The country`s estimated gas reserves amount to at least 2 trillion cubic meters.

Agreements
Following the presidents` talks, Baku and Athens put pen to four documents - agreements covering cancellation of double taxation, cooperation in the field of aviation and in the areas of technologies, information and communications, as well as a memorandum of understanding on the use of renewable energy resources and energy efficiency.
The Greek leader noted that energy issues, investments, commerce, collaboration in the fields of culture and education represented priorities for Azerbaijan and Greece.
The parties also discussed the situation in the Caucasus, the Middle East and the Balkan regions. Also, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict was touched upon at the initiative of Baku, and the Cyprus problem was discussed at the initiative of Athens.
President Aliyev invited the Greek leader to visit Baku, and the invitation was accepted.
Aliyev had arrived in Greece on Sunday for a three-day official visit.
Azerbaijan and Greece established diplomatic ties in April 1992. In May 1993, the Greek embassy opened in the South Caucasus republic, while the Azerbaijani embassy opened in Athens in April 2004.