Chinese President Hu Jintao joined the leaders of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan at an inauguration ceremony for the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline on Monday.

 

The inauguration took place at a gas plant near the Turkmen-Uzbek border.

At the ceremony, which was held on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, President Hu Jintao, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbek President Islam Karimov lavished praise on the project.

They took turns describing it as a commendable example of cooperation among countries in the region.

The 1,833-kilometer pipeline originates on the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and runs through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching northwest China's Xinjiang region.

One of the two pipelines which make up the project has been completed, and the other line is expected to be operational by next year.