MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has proposed to Turkey that it join the South Stream natural gas pipeline project, a first deputy premier said after talks with Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz on Wednesday.

"We want decisions on this project to be conducted in a transparent manner," Igor Sechin told journalists, adding that he hopes Turkey will consider the proposal. The pipeline, which will link Russia to Europe via the Black Sea, is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Sechin said that various routes of gas supplies, including the EU-backed Nabucco project, were discussed.

"The more opportunities to supply gas to consumers, the better," he said.

South Stream is a rival to the Nabucco pipeline, designed to bring gas from Central Asia and the Caspian to Europe, bypassing Russia. The European Union, wary of its growing energy dependence on Russia, is backing the project despite the current economic crisis.

A deal reached on the weekend between Russia's Gazprom and Azerbaijan under which Russia will buy huge volumes of gas from the Caspian state's largest gas field, Shah Deniz, to supply the South Stream pipeline, dealt a severe blow to the Nabucco project.

Sechin also he had also discussed with Yildiz reducing the cost of building a nuclear power plant in Turkey. Russia is taking part in a tender to build Turkey's first nuclear plant.