Outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic...

Mesic received the proposal when he visited Moscow in mid-December to discuss joint energy projects, the paper said.

"Russia would like to see the leading positions in the South Stream and Nord Stream gas pipelines to be held by former high-placed officials of the countries, across which these pipelines will pass," the paper said.

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 Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion.

The shareholder"s committee of Nord Stream AG, the project operator, is chaired by former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The South Stream project, designed to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, involves Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

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