On the second day of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit in Sofia, Bulgaria on Friday signed a deal and took a stake in the project of a huge pipeline to supply Western Europe with Russian gas.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's cabinet passed the deal in an emergency session earlier Friday, held just before meetings with Putin were scheduled to start.

The Russian leader wanted the pipeline deal sealed during his stay on Thursday and Friday. He came in company of heir-apparent, Deputy Premier Dmitri Medvedev, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Putin also watched the signing of a handful of other contracts, including projects to build a pipeline for Russian oil from he Black Sea to Greece and construct Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant.

"These treaties are the basis for development of Bulgarian and Russian relations over the coming decades," Putin said at a meeting with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

Bulgaria took the stake in South Stream after wrangling a 50-per- cent stake from the Russian side, Gazprom, which would construct the 10-billion-dollar, 900-kilometre pipeline with ENI of Italy.

"Negotiations over the last few days were a success for both countries. Bulgaria's interests have been protected," Stanishev told reporters after the cabinet took the decision.

Bulgaria has a stake only in the segment of the pipeline running across its soil, but would reap hundreds of millions of dollars from the transit of 30 billion cubic metres of gas to terminals in Italy and Austria annually.

Wary of its dependance on Russian gas, the EU - of which Bulgaria became a member a year ago - had supported the rival Nabucco pipeline which would supply it with central Asian gas and bypass Russia.

The two other big energy contracts signed Friday have set up a joint venture to build a pipeline for Russian oil from Burgas to Alexandropoulis and awarded the construction of a 6-billion-dollar nuclear power plant to Russia.

The work on the oil pipeline is due to start this year and end in 2011, linking Bulgaria's Black Sea coast with Greece and the Aegean.

The Belene power plant, the second that Bulgaria would operate on the Danube, would be built by Atomstroyexport, one of firms under the giant umbrella of Gazprom. The plan has drawn harsh criticism from the Bulgarian opposition and sparked protests at Putin's visit.

Putin was scheduled to depart Bulgaria later Friday.