RUSAL confident on aluminium market recovery

* RUSAL sees demand helping aluminium market

* Highlights push to diversify, ties with Norilsk

* Sees Russia, Australia sharing Asian resource markets

MELBOURNE, April 15 (Reuters) - Swollen inventories are no longer a problem for the aluminium market, Russia's UC RUSAL, the world's biggest aluminium producer, said on Thursday.

Despite high aluminium stocks in London Metal Exchange inventories at 4.57 million tonnes as of Wednesday, RUSAL Chief Executive Oleg Deripaska said growth in global demand would help push up alumininum prices.

Aluminium inventories ballooned because of a sharp fall in demand during the global financial crisis, which also knocked alumininum prices.

"It was an issue for me when demand dropped,” Deripaska said at a business lunch in Australia. “Inventory is not an issue anymore,” he added.

LME-traded aluminium prices have risen 10 percent so far this year to $2,462 per tonne, partly supported by RUSAL's attempt to launch an aluminium exchange-traded fund (ETF), which could see a million tonnes or more of the metal locked up.

Primary aluminium stocks in China, the world's top consumer and producer of the metal, have risen more than 45 percent from January on increased production.

Stocks of about 1.6 million tonnes of primary aluminium, 1.2 times China's February output, may be now stored in warehouses, fabricating plants and smelters, compared to about 1.1 million tonnes in late January.

Deripaska said in the long run he sees Russia and Australia sharing the markets to supply resources, with Russia focused on South Korea, China and Japan and Australia shifting its focus toward India and Africa.

The Russian tycoon did not comment on speculation that RUSAL might look to merge with Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel, but highlighted RUSAL's next step was to diversify production.

He noted RUSAL's 25 percent stake in Norilsk was strategic and said the two companies were well positioned to tap resourcers in Siberia to supply Asia, with global warming making it easier for Russian companies to access resources in the polar circle.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul and James Regan; Editing by Mark Bendeich)