EU ambassadors have agreed to toughen regulations on a controversial gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, but they have decided not to back plans that might threaten its completion.

Work on the 1,225km  Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is set to end this year, but it has angered several EU countries.

The EU wants to bring pipelines coming into the bloc under its energy rules.

But Germany feared that would make the new pipeline uneconomic and nonviable.

In the end 27 of the bloc’s 28 ambassadors reportedly agreed to a Franco-German compromise.