UPDATE 2-Turkmenistan ready to supply gas for Nabucco link

(Recasts lead, adds background)

By Marat Gurt

ASHGABAT, July 10 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan said on Friday it was ready to provide gas for the Nabucco pipeline, three months after Russia halted gas imports from the Central Asian state amid a row over shipments.

"Currently, Turkmenistan has excess gas for trade. We are ready to send it abroad to any customer. This includes Nabucco," Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov told a government meeting, broadcast late on Friday on state television.

Russia, the main buyer of Turkmen gas, halted its imports in April after a pipeline which carries more than half of its most valuable export exploded and analysts have said Turkmenistan is losing up to $1 billion every month in lost gas export revenues.

Central Asia's biggest gas producer blamed Moscow for blowing up the pipeline, a charge Russia denies.

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, in an interview with Turkmen state television also on Friday, said he had discussed energy cooperation with Berdymukhamedov during his tour in Central Asia.

A raft of transit agreements will be signed on Monday in Turkey by the architects of the EU and U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline, which are expected to define where the pipeline will begin.

The pipeline group wants to pump 31 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe annually, meeting some 5 percent of gas needs, but a lack of supply agreements have hampered political will and financing, analysts say.