Russia expects to sign the last document...

"The last agreement, with Austria, will be signed already in April," Shmatko said.

The South Stream project is designed to pump annually 31 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas along the bed of the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further on to Italy and Austria.

The pipeline"s capacity could eventually reach 63 billion cubic meters annually. The gas pipeline is expected to start operating in late 2015 and account for about 35% of Russian natural gas supplies to Europe.

Russia has already signed inter-governmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia to implement the onshore part of the project.

The project is part of Russia"s efforts to cut dependence on transit nations, particularly Ukraine. It is widely considered a rival project to the EU-backed Nabucco, which would also transport Caspian and Central Asian gas to Europe but would bypass Russia.

MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti)