Pact on oil pipeline boosts energy links

A Sino-Russian pact on a pipeline from Siberia to supply oil to China's northeast was among the agreements witnessed by Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russian media reports said Moscow's agreement to move ahead on the long-delayed project was won with pledges of financial support from Beijing.

The pipeline, which extends from western Siberia to the Pacific coast, is to be connected to China from the Siberian city of Skovorodino, 70 km north of the Sino-Russian border. The cost of the pipeline spur has been estimated at $800 million.