Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Wednesday said he hopes to dissuade Russia and Germany from building a Baltic Sea pipeline, saying he surmised concern in Moscow over the growing costs of the project.

Speaking in an interview on the Polish radio broadcaster TOK FM, Sikorski said "this is creating perhaps room for a change of standpoint on the Russian-German side."

The Polish minister was in Moscow on Monday preparing for an official visit by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on February 8. Tusk is to travel to the Russia capital "armed with solid information" over the energy question, Sikorski said.

The Baltic pipeline is planned to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. According to Burckhard Bergmann, chairman of the Germany energy firm E.ON, the project has become more expensive than the originally forecast five billion euros (US$7.2 billion).

Poland sees a strategic threat in the project - which bypasses Polish territory - with Warsaw fearing being dependent on energy from Moscow.

According to Sikorski, Poland's Economy Ministry considers other routes for the pipeline to be more advantageous. The project Amber which passes overland to Germany through the Baltic states and Poland would be cheaper and more profitable, Sikorski suggested.

Copyright 2008 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

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