Bulgaria's capital Sofia is hosting April 24-25 the world energy summit "Natural Gas for Europe. Security and Partnership".

The summit is kicking off with an International Energy Business Forum starting at 9:30 am at the Kempinski Hotel in Sofia.

The business forum is organized by the Bulgarian Energy Holding, Bulgaria's state-owned energy giant, and will be opened by the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.

It is going to be attended by representatives of leading regional and global energy companies from the states that are producers and consumers of natural gas in the Caspian Sea Region, the Middle East, and North Africa, as well as from the transit routes states.

The participants include the Russian giant Gazprom, the German RWE, the French Gas de France. the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR, and Qatargas, who will present their positions on the construction of the Nabucco and South Stream gas transit pipeline projects.

The Natural Gas for Europe summit is taking place at the National Palace of Culture in downtown Sofia starting at 2:30 pm, when the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, will deliver a keynote speech.

Twenty-eight states and organizations from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa are going to be attending the Summit: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Egypt, France, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the Ukraine, USA.

The top-ranking participants include seven Presidents and one Prime Minister, among others: Albania's President Bamir Topi, Azerbaijan's Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev, Croatia's President Stjepan Mesi?‡, the Czech Deputy PM for European Affairs Alexander Vondra, the President of the European Commission Jose Barroso, Egypt's Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy, Macedonia's Deputy PM Ivica Bocevski, Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili, Greece's PM Kostas Karamanlis, Italy's Minister for Economic Development Claudio Scajola, Kazakhstan's Special Envoy Lyzzat Kiinov, Montenegro's President Filip Vujanovi?‡, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Romania's Minister of Economy Adriean Videanu, Russia's Minister of Energy Sergey Shmatko, Serbia's President Boris Tadic. Turkey's President Abdullah Gül, and the U.S. Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar.