MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti) - Finland could give its backing to the Nord Stream project to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany already in June, a Kremlin source said Sunday.

"I believe that they [Finland] will make a decision in June. We have not received any signals to the effect that they are not going to do this," the Kremlin source said, adding that the decision would allow the gas pipeline to be built across the Nordic country.

The Nord Stream pipeline, which will pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries, is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON and BASF, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion.

The ambitious pipeline project is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The first of two parallel pipelines, approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long, each with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cu m per annum, is to become operational in 2010.

Some countries, including Sweden, Estonia and Finland, earlier questioned the environmental safety of the Baltic Sea pipeline. Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb later said, however, that the Nord Stream project was necessary along with the South Stream and Nabucco gas pipeline projects.

The Kremlin source also expressed the hope that Finland's active position on this issue would help make other Baltic countries support the project.