Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni on Monday met in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, discussing the joint construction of a 1,440 km crude oil pipeline.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said the two were given presentations by Kenyan and Ugandan energy officials on the options for the route of the pipeline.

The pipeline was initially designed to run from Hoima oil fields in Uganda to Lamu port in Kenya, however Tanzania, which also has interests in the project, has recently inked a deal with Uganda, paving way for building the pipeline between the two.

Security remains a major concern for the pipeline to run through northern Kenya, which has been targeted by Somalia-based Islamist group Al-Shabaab in the past.

Three routes were presented at the meeting between Kenyatta and Museveni -- a "northern route" and a "southern route" both through Kenya from Hoima to the Kenyan coast, and one from Hoima to the Tanzanian seaport city of Tanga.

Three oil producers operating in Uganda -- Irish company Tullow Oil, French company Total and China's CNOC -- were invited to the meeting.

The two leaders have agreed to meet again in two weeks in the Ugandan capital Kampala to continue the discussions, with key issues expected to be the size, cost and feasibility of the pipeline.

Uganda plans to drill its 6.5 billion barrels of oil reserves in the western part of the country. It wants to refine some of the oil and transport the rest of the crude to the East African coast for exportation.