Presidents of the five states bordering the oil-rich Caspian Sea have concluded a summit in Turkmenistan without agreement on the sharing of the sea's vast oil and natural gas reserves. 

Participants say the leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, meeting in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, could not achieve consensus on a final document. 

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia want the Caspian Sea divided according to national borders, while Iran is demanding a division into five equal parts. Turkmenistan's position remains unclear. 

The Caspian seabed contains one of the world's largest reserves of oil and natural gas, while its waters are famous for sturgeon, the source of some of the world's most expensive caviar. 

During Soviet times, the division of the Caspian's resources was set by an Iranian-Soviet treaty. But since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, three new independent countries bordering the sea were created, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and they all want a share of the oil wealth. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP.

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