ALGIERS (Reuters) - The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) agreed on Monday pipeline and liquefied natural gas suppliers should not compete with each other and should work to raise gas prices on a par with oil, but did not agree to coordinated output cuts.

The GECF, whose members hold about 70 percent of the world's conventional gas reserves, met on Monday in Algeria to plan an escape from a gas glut that has pitted LNG and pipeline gas suppliers against each other, driving down prices and profits over the last year.

"All ministers agreed that our aim is to continue to support the linking of gas to oil parity ... We also believe that there should not be competition between different types of gas," Russian energy minister Sergei Shmatko said after the meeting.

"We believe that there is today a certain conflict between long-term contracts and the spot market."

Russia, the world's largest pipeline gas exporter, has seen its sales to Europe shrink because of competition from LNG sellers who have been forced to find markets for fuel earmarked for North America before a surge in U.S. shale gas production.

Plentiful supply has driven gas prices down on both sides of the Atlantic, slashing profits for LNG sellers too. Gas currently sells for less than $4 per million British thermal units in the U.S., down from a 2-1/2 year peak of $13.69 in mid-2008, and $5 in Britain.

With oil trading in a range of $80-85 over the last month, oil parity would mean gas selling for around $11.

Algerian energy minister Chakib Khelil said earlier this year the forum -- which is dominated by Europe's three biggest suppliers Russia, Algeria and LNG giant Qatar -- should agree to coordinated cuts in spot market supplies to support prices.

But the GECF has made no serious attempt to coordinate supply policy so far, and ministers did not discuss practical cuts on Monday, the GECF's Russian secretary general Leonid Bokhanovsky said.

"The (Algerian) proposal was not discussed in detail... No practical steps on the percentage of the cuts or the segment of the cuts were discussed in the open session," Bokhanovsky told Reuters after the meeting.

Although often refered to as "gas OPEC", many analysts say it cannot hope to emulate the power of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries soon because most gas is delivered under long-term contracts and competition for spot sales from non-members is strong.

"When you drop the (OPEC) quota, someone else is not taking your place, but in gas, you have two important countries that are not members -- the United States and Australia," Khelil told journalists after the meeting, adding the group had instead decided to strive for oil-gas parity -- someday.

"How you do that is for each country to achieve that with the sales contracts that they have," he said.

OFFICIAL DECLARATION

The GECF, which Bokhanovsky said would hold its next ministerial meeting in Qatar on December 2, 2010, hopes instead to convince customers that they should pay more for gas to ensure the investments needed to secure supplies of the cleanest burning fossil fuel in future.

"We agree that ensuring adequate and reliable supplies of gas at prices reflecting parity with oil prices and the advantages of natural gas is a challenge," the final GECF declaration, read by Khelil, said.

"Natural gas is an essential part of the fuel mix and plays an important role in satisfying the global need for an environmentally friendly energy source."

The declaration says the GECF wants big gas consumers to participate in more upstream gas projects in producing countries, while allowing gas exporters to invest in mid and downstream networks in consuming countries.