New Energy Partners

As part of a three-day tour of the southern Caucasus states, Steinmeier was seeking ways to decrease Germany's dependence on Russian energy supplies after doubts have surfaced across Europe concerning the reliability of Russian oil and gas deliveries.

A key issue in the talks was a 1,776-kilometer (1,104-mile) oil pipeline that was opened last year and provides a European outlet for Azerbaijani oil by connecting the capital of Baku via Tbilisi in Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Thanks mainly to their large oil and gas fields, the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan last year booked 35 percent economic growth as a booming oil nation. Many in Europe, however, remain concerned about the country's spotty human rights record.

Meeting EU demands

Aliev said during a visit to Germany last week that his oil-rich nation needed another five years to raise human-rights standards to match levels required under good-neighbor agreements with European states.

Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, played an important role in tightening the 27-member bloc's relations with Azerbaijan.

European Union officials vowed last year to forge stronger links with suppliers of vital oil and gas in a bid to ease the bloc's current dependence on energy-rich but increasingly assertive Russia.

The EU is backing westward gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea fields via Ukraine and Turkey. A line, code-named Nabucco, is to be commissioned by 2011. It would pick up gas from Turkish pipelines and shift it to western Europe's grid via Bulgaria and Romania.

During his trip, Steinmeier is also scheduled to confer with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarjan.