Thursday, July 7 2005 15:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Iran and Pakistan have decided to invite India to hold trilateral meetings of their oil ministers to speed up the implementation of the multi-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.

Visiting Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and his Pakistani counterpart Amanullah Khan held detailed discussions in Islamabad last night (July 6, 2005) and decided to hold trilateral meetings of oil ministers from India, Pakistan and Iran to gear up the implementation of the project.

Jadoon and Zanganeh exchanged views on the talks they had with Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer last month in Islamabad and Tehran respectively, official news agency reported today (July 7, 2005).

India and Pakistan had last month agreed to constitute a Secretary-level Joint Working Group to thrash out issues and modalities for getting the project off the ground by January 2006.

Both the Ministers resolved to invite India to all ministerial or secretary level talks on the ambitious project, the report said. Iranian officials would also attend the proposed Joint Working Group meeting to be held between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi next month.

The Ministers told reporters after the meeting that they did not discuss the issue of gas prices as it was considered premature as this stage.