UPDATE 1-Russia says gas OPEC will not set up output quotas

(Adds details, background after para 3)

MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) - The world's top gas exporting nations will set up a formal organisation at a December summit in Moscow, a Russian official said on Wednesday, but denied the new body will seek to copy OPEC's production quotas.

"No one is planning to regulate gas production volumes. It is a crazy idea," Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky told reporters.

He said energy ministers from 16 gas exporting nations would meet in Moscow on Dec 23, as planned, to sign a charter for the new organisation.

The comment follows a meeting on Wednesday of experts from a more informal gas exporters club, known as the Forum of Gas Exporting Nations, which discussed its draft charter.

Yanovsky said the new organisation would make up a budget of contributions from the country members to fund research.

The forum's country members include Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, Qatar, Russia, Venezuela and two observer members -- Equatorial Guinea and Norway.

The idea of an OPEC-style gas group has sent a nervous tremor through the European Union and the United States, which have argued the market should set gas prices. Both have warned the cartel could pose a serious danger to global energy.

The EU's envoy to Russia, Marc Franco, told Reuters last week a 'gas OPEC' was good for European consumers if it did not act as a pricing cartel. [ID:nLL130633]

Europe's top suppliers, including global No. 1 producer Russia, say the new organisation would help better structure long-term gas needs and coordinate capital expenditure programmes.

The three members of the future group - Russia, Iran and Qatar - whose combined output is more than half of global production - have agreed to set up what Moscow called a separate "gas troika", which they said would coordinate long-term investment plans. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, writing Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Sue Thomas)