Energy cooperation remained the principal part of two countries' partnership, Russia's president said during the meeting with his counterpart in the Caspian coastal town of Turkmenbashi.

"Still, we must think about the future... Energy efficiency and new technologies are the most important directions of our future cooperation," Medvedev said. He added that cooperation in agriculture had been important, too.

Russia's president offered to conduct a Russia-Turkmenistan innovation forum in 2011 in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabad.

He also supported Turkmenistan's position that Caspian problems should be discussed and resolved only among the five maritime states.

Medvedev was accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and deputy prime minister in charge for fuel and energy sector, Igor Sechin.

While in Turkmenistan, Sechin made blunt remarks about the Nabucco project, saying that the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Europe bypassing Russia had no future. Nabucco Gas Pipeline International company plans to start construction of the pipeline in 2012 and to open it in 2015.

The pipeline attempts to lessen European dependence on Russian energy. The project is backed by several European Union states and the United States and is seen as rival to the Gazprom-led South Stream pipeline project.

Russia and Turkmenistan have decided not to revive a mothballed Caspian gas pipeline as demand for the fuel in Europe is yet to recover, Kommersant business daily reported at trhe weekend.Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan had agreed to build the link along the Caspian Sea coastal line that would allow Moscow to keep regional gas flows under its control, but its construction has yet to begin.

Turkmenistan holds the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (R) toasts his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev