(PARIS) - The European Union wants to look at ways of tapping into Central Asia's vast energy reserves, an official said Thursday at the opening of a foreign ministers' meeting in Paris.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency, joined counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for the first EU-Central Asia security forum.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said stengthening relations with Central Asia in the energy sector "was a top priority of the European Union".

Central Asian countries, which sit on large reserves of oil and natural gas, "also have a strong interest in diversifying their routes to export their hydrocarbons," she said.

Russia has a stranglehold on pipelines to Europe from Central Asia and Moscow's influence has been a growing source of worry since the Russia-Georgia war last month.

Kouchner said he discussed with "frankness, sincerity and in a climate of confidance" the Russia-Georgia conflict that erupted after Russia crushed a Georgian attempt to restore control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The European Union wants to encourage the five former Soviet republics to resist pressure from Moscow to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Georgian rebel region, as independent states.

Talks were also to touch on drug trafficking, combating terrorism and non-proliferation, in a region which neighbours Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A joint statement was to be issued at the end of the one-day forum.

EU-Central Asia Paris Forum

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