UNESCO studies Caspian Sea pollution

TEHRAN, Aug 5 (AFP) - A 14-member UNESCO research team is sailing the Caspian Sea in an effort to study pollution in the resource-rich waters which hold one of the biggest energy reserves in the world, a UNESCO official said.

"It is the first time such a mission has been organized and authorized to take action" since the breakup of the Soviet Union, UNESCO official Ehsan Naraqi told AFP, adding that the research would be the basis for "international action" to "save" the Caspian.

Pollution has increased dramatically in the Caspian because of industrial dumping and oil drilling by the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russi and Turkmenistan border the sea, which has attracted attention from US and European consortiums because of its huge oil and gas reserves.

The 143,000-square mile (371,000-square kilometer) sea is thought to hold 12 to 15 billion tonnes of oil and natural gas, the third largest such reserves in the world, and is also the source of 80 to 90 percent of the world's caviar.

The five nations have yet to reach agreement on how to divide the sea's vast resources. Tehran and Moscow held a monopoly on the sea until the Soviet Union's 1991 breakup.

The UNESCO team has already videotaped the Caspian shore in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and arrived Monday in the Iranian port of Anzali, Naraqi said, adding that the complete tapes will be shown at UN headquarters in November.

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