Russian energy giant Gazprom signed a contract to increase the volume of gas it purchases from Uzbekistan starting in 2010, the company said.

Alexander Medvedev during an Asian tour stopped off in Uzbekistan to sign a deal to increase gas purchases by 150 billion cubic feet to 547 billion cubic feet by 2010. Gazprom will purchase the gas on a priced pegged to the European gas market.

Gazprom signed preliminary deals with its Uzbek counterpart Uztransgas in 2005. The agreement secured a gas transmission system that ferried Turkmen gas through Uzbekistan.

Moscow announced last week that it intends to purchase more than 1 trillion cubic feet of Turkmen gas beginning in January.

Both sides agreed to work on the construction of pipelines to transport natural gas from fields in the Turkmen waters of the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan.