SANYA (China), November 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said Tuesday that the government welcomed agreements between Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to start talks to coordinate Russian gas supplies to China soon.

Zhukov told journalists that Gazprom and the CNPC had signed a strategic cooperation agreement envisioning future natural gas deliveries from Russia to China from a single gas supply system in Siberia.

"This will make it possible to cross over from separate projects' studies to systemic development of variants to supply natural gas from Russia to China," Zhukov said.