Akinci: Mix region's gas, send via Turkey

An accord reunifying ethnically split Cyprus could unlock a deal to convey gas discovered in fields off Israel, Egypt and Cyprus to markets through neighboring Turkey's existing pipeline network, the leader of the island's breakaway Turkish Cypriots said Monday.

Mustafa Akinci said Turkey is the cheaper, faster "logical" route to markets for east Mediterranean gas, but that a Cyprus peace deal must precede any such plans.

"Everybody could win from this," he told a televised news conference.

Akinci made the remark in response to an ambitious pipeline project linking east Mediterranean gas deposits and conveying them directly to Europe. The European Union has funded a feasibility study on the proposed East Med pipeline that has the backing of Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Italy.

ExxonMobil is scheduled to begin exploratory drilling off Cyprus later this month....