Russian-German Baltic gas link delayed to late 2011

MOSCOW, July 9 (Reuters) - The Russian-German gas consortium building the Nord Stream gas pipeline will delay first fuel deliveries by a few months to late 2011 due to new ecological studies requested by the states involved.

"We are not giving an exact month but it will start in the second half of 2011. The slight adjustment is due to the fact that countries involved are raising new requests," said Nord Stream's spokeswoman Irina Vasiliyeva.

European Union lawmakers demanded on Tuesday a full assessment of potential environmental damage from a planned pipeline to pump Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany.

The pipeline, which will eventually pump 55 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe annually, had been initially due to start in 2010 but last year adjusted the deadline to early 2011.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)