Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to travel in Turkmenistan December 13-14 to inaugurate the Turkmenistan-China pipeline.

The ceremony will also be attended by Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The 1,700 -kilometer long pipeline runs from eastern Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into northwestern China.

Turkmenistan has pledged to deliver 40 billion cubic meters of gas to China annually for 30 years, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov told Chinese reporters in Ashgabat on December 9.

"This project is of strategic importance to both sides and is in the long-term interests of Turkmenistan and China. It is consistent with the logic of global economic development in which energy supplies play an increasing role," he added in remarks quoted by the Turkmen state news agency.