Greece and Turkey have opened a gas pipeline they hope takes them a step closer to settling their differences. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis met to shake hands at the border on a bridge over the Evros river.

The 285-kilometer pipe connects Karacabey in northern Turkey with Kotomini in north-eastern Greece.

At a cost of around 200 million euros, it will transfer up to 12 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Azerbaijan per year.

A quarter of that will stay in Greece, the rest will be re-exported to Europe, which is looking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Greece and Turkey are still embroiled in territorial disputes in Cyprus and the Aegean, but agreed on the pipe in 2004.

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