MOSCOW, April 5 (Reuters) - Russian largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek said on Monday it plans to put up its 60% stake in Arctic LNG 2 project as collateral for long-term financing of the project.

Novatek seeks to raise $11 billion in external financing and has said it planned to get the funds by the first half of this year.

The $21 billion project, which received final investment approval in 2019, is expected to be launched in 2023 and to reach its full capacity of almost 20 million tonnes per year in 2026.

The project's equity partners include France's Total , China National Petroleum Corp, China's CNOOC and the Japan Arctic LNG consortium made up of Mitsui & Co and state-owned JOGMEC, formally known as Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.

Russia's Sberbank SBER.MM said in January it had approved financing of up to 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for the Arctic LNG 2.

($1 = 0.8464 euros) (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Editing by Marguerita Choy)