"There is full consensus within the Serbian government over the benefits of the deal," said Mirko Cvetkovic.
On January 25, Russia and Serbia signed an oil and gas agreement envisioning, as part of the South Stream project, a joint construction of a 400-km section of the Russian gas pipeline via Serbia, and a construction of an underground storage facility.
The South Stream project is expected to transport 10 billion cu m of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea to the Balkans and onto other European countries, with the first deliveries scheduled to start in 2013.
The Serbian parliament has yet to ratify the deal however. Serbian authorities have consistently reassured their Russian partners that the deal will "soon" be ratified.
