Vienna  - Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer has signed on as an advisor to the planned Nabucco pipeline linking Central Asia with Europe, the Austrian project partner OMV said Monday.

Top officials from the pipeline's transit countries Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey are set to meet in Ankara on July 13 to sign the legal framework for the gas pipeline.

Germany is also a project partner in the Vienna-based Nabucco consortium, but has no transit role.

Fischer, who served as foreign minister until 2005, was hired to maintain contacts and dialogue with political leaders of countries involved in the project, OMV said in its statement.

The former Green party politician is the second German leader to work for a high-profile energy project besides former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is involved with the rival German-Russian pipeline consortium Nord Stream.(dpa)