ABU-DHABI, April 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Qatar, the world's leading gas producers, agreed to form an energy development committee at the forum of gas exporters in Doha, a local paper said Tuesday.

The agreement was reached at a forum of 14 leading gas exporters in Doha Monday. The committee will be based on Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] and Qatar's oil company, the Doha-based Ar-Raya newspaper said.

The Qatari energy minister, Abdallah al-Atiyah, said Russia and Qatar "have vast opportunities for cooperation as the world's largest producers of both natural gas and liquefied gas."

Al-Atiyah said he would visit Moscow in June to discuss further cooperation. "We will consider possible joint investment in the development [of energy resources] and the petrochemical industry," he told Ar-Raya.

Qatar's natural gas reserves total 25.9 trillion cubic meters, and Russia's 47.8 trillion.

In February, Qatar launched liquefied gas (LNG) production expected to put out 7.4 million metric tons of LNG annually, and will also commission two other production lines to yield 7.8 million metric tons a year each.

The first line will supply LNG to China and the other to the United States. The ultimate production target is 37 million metric tons of LNG a year by 2010-2011 for exports to South Korea, India, Taiwan, Italy and Spain.