New Delhi: India will consider a $ 4.16 billion Iran-India gas pipeline passing through Pakistan only if Islamabad grants New Delhi the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status and guarantees security of supplies.

"New Delhi will not consider the project in isolation and it will form part of an overall trade and economic package that includes Pakistan granting MFN status on India," a top Government official said.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has censored Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's attempts to take up the project without any pre-condition and wants Islamabad to guarantee security of physical infrastructure, 760-km of the 2775-km pipeline will pass through Pakistan, guarantee uninterrupted supplies and give New Delhi transit rights.

Aiyar is scheduled to call on the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister S Aziz tomorrow (Nov 23, 2004) evening and the Iran-India pipeline is likely to figure in the 45-minute meeting.

The official said MEA has also nipped Aiyar's plea for pushing for a diesel export pipeline from Jalandhar to Lahore as a guarantee of ensuring Pakistan does not shut off taps of the gas line.

"A small pipeline carrying only 0.5 million tonnes per annum of diesel annually to Pakistan cannot stand guarantee for the multi-billion dollar gas purchases India will make from Iran," the MEA has noted.

Pakistan can resort to importing diesel by oil tankers, like it is doing currently, in case India uses the diesel export line as a pressure tactics. "It would take 6-7 hours for a tanker from Middle-East to reach Karachi port."