HELSINKI (AFP) - A Finnish regional authority gave the Russian-led Nord Stream consortium the green light for building a gas pipeline from Russia to the European Union under the Baltic Sea.

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"The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland granted Nord Stream AG the permit to build its gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through Finland's Exclusive Economic Zone," the agency said in a statement.

The Finnish government, as those of other countries affected by Nord Stream, had already given the green light to the pipeline project, but it still needed to be approved by the environment division of the Finnish regional authority.

Nord Stream plans to build a 1,220-kilometre (760-mile) pipeline to deliver gas to Germany, a 7.4-billion-euro project led by Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom in partnership with Germany's E.On Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall.

It will link the Russian city of Vyborg and Greifswald in Germany, running under the Baltic Sea and passing through Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German waters.

Some 375 kilometres of pipeline are expected to go through the Finnish economic zone, and construction is due to begin this year, the authority said.

A quarter of the gas consumed in the European Union comes from Russia.