UPDATE 1-Nord Stream delays first gas exports to 2011

(Adds details, background)

MOSCOW Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Nord Stream pipeline group will delay first exports of Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea to spring 2011 from the previous plan of end of 2010, the pipeline group said on Friday.

The group, which has already warned it is taking longer than expected to get permission from all countries involved, also said in a statement that delivery of pipeline materials was taking long and comprehensive safety tests were needed.

"The project timeline ... foresees pipe-laying works on the first line commencing during the summer of 2009 and to be completed in 2010," the statement said.

"The first gas to be delivered by this commercial project is scheduled for the spring of 2011, after completion of the test phase," it added.

The ambitious 5 billion euros ($7.19 billion) project -- which plans to take up to 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Russian gas to Europe annually -- is led by Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM), which has a 51 percent stake.

German firms BASF BASF.F and E.ON EONG.DE both hold 20 percent stakes in the pipeline project, and Dutch firm Gasunie, which joined in November, has a 9 percent stake.

Over the last few months analysts and more recently German former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have said the project cost might balloon to 8 billion euros, a figure Gasunie has also hinted at in the past.

Schroeder chairs the supervisory board of the Nord Stream consortium.

The companies in the consortium have consistently denied any cost overruns or delays to the project.

Though European politicians have called for diversification away from Russian exports following gas and oil supply cuts due to Moscow's spats with transit states, Nord Stream is expected to cover more than a quarter of Europe's incremental gas demand annually from its launch. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Amie Ferris-Rotman; editing by James Jukwey)