ISTANBUL- The construction of the offshore part of the TurkStream pipeline that will pump Russian gas to Turkey had been completed, a senior official at Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Monday.

Gazprom's Oleg Aksyutin made the announcement on television after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met in Istanbul to mark the completion of the offshore leg of the pipeline.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Adrian Croft) ((Tom.Balmforth@thomsonreuters.com;))