A long-awaited oil pipeline from Russia is expected to reach China within weeks, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

He told lawmakers that Russian state oil pipe builder Transneft will soon finish laying the pipes. There was no word on when oil would start to flow.

The figure is equivalent to 15 million tons a year, or 7 percent of China's oil consumption last year.

The two countries began discussions on the construction of the pipeline in 2001, but an agreement was not reached until last October, when China promised a $25-billion loan to the Russian oil sector.

The Sino-Russian pipeline is part of the 4,700-km East Siberia-Pacific Ocean line, which is designed to export Russian crude oil to Asia-Pacific markets.

Professor Xia Yishan, an energy expert at the China Institute of International Studies, said the pipeline would make Russian oil a "more straightforward, consistent and long lasting" alternative to Middle East and African sources, which currently make up 80 percent of China's oil imports.

"Oil imports from Russia will diversify China's energy sources, which guarantees its strategic need for the crude," Xia said.

Pan Zhanlin, an expert in Sino-Russia relations, said energy cooperation between the two neighbours also helps Russia to counter the global financial crisis.

"Russia needs the Chinese market," Pan said.

Russia now exports 9 million tons of oil a year to China via railway.