Thursday, July 21 2005 14:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Observing that the proposed multi-billion dollar Indo-Iran gas pipeline via Pakistan is fraught with risks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he did not know if any international consortium of bankers would underwrite the project.

"Only preliminary discussions have taken place (on the pipeline). We are terribly short of our energy supply and we desperately need new sources of energy. And that's why with Pakistan we have agreed to explore the possibility of the pipeline," he told 'The Post' yesterday (July 20, 2005) when asked about the discussions on building a gas pipeline with Iran.

"But I am realistic enough to realize that there are many risks because considering all the uncertainties of the situation there in Iran. I don't know if any international consortium of bankers would probably underwrite this. But we are in a spate of preliminary negotiations, and the background of this is we desperately need the supply of gas that Iran has," the Prime Minister said.

Asked whether India can use its new relationship with the US to help the country on relations with Iran, Singh said: "We are entirely one with the rest of the world, that Countries, which take solemn international obligations, that they must honor those obligations. Our interest would be to work with other like-minded countries that a constructive solution can be found for the problems that Iran is expressing, that the world community is expressing about Iran."

Singh, however, expressed hope that India could act as a bridge between US and Iran.

"We have strong civilization links with Iran. Also, I would say that Iran is the largest Shia Muslim country in the world. We have the second largest Shia Muslim population in our country, and I do believe (with) that part of our unique history, we can be a bridge," he said.

When pointed out that many people in the US are concerned about the proposed Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement because of the issue of nuclear proliferation, Singh said India's peaceful nuclear programme was not built by stealing other people's technology.

"We had this dream that it was better to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons and we had this dream of universal nuclear disarmament.

"We have been proved wrong and the result is we have seen in our neighborhood reckless proliferation in disregard of all the international obligations. But although we have nuclear assets, our programme is totally under civilian control. We are a democracy, there are enough checks and balances in our country, and we have an impeccable record of not contributing in any way to nuclear proliferation," he said.