Thursday, March 3 2005 14:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Iran today (Mar 3, 2005) said it would guarantee supply of natural gas to India through a proposed pipeline running across Pakistani territory with a trilateral meeting convened in Islamabad for formulating plans in this regard.

"Fortunately, some solutions for the guarantee has been found and some suggestions have been made in this respect. In the coming weeks, authorities of three countries - India, Iran and Pakistan will have a common meeting," Iran Parliament's Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said on his arrival in Bangalore on a two-day official visit.

Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has said Iran will have to ensure security of natural gas supply to India and cover risk of the Pakistani segment of the pipeline by securing adequate financial and sovereign guarantees as well as necessary insurance cover.

"The suggestion generally is that Iran undertakes to bring the gas to the boundaries of India and then it seems on the basis of this suggestion, there will be no problem" Adel said.

The US $ 4.5 billion, 2,775-km long India-Iran gas pipeline, one-fourth of which will pass through Pakistan is expected to be completed by 2009 and address the huge demand for gas in the country.

Adel said that Islamabad would host the trilateral meeting where officials from the three nations will firm up commitments on assured security and supply of gas through Pakistan. He said that bilateral relations with India were growing stronger.