Tuesday, August 2 2005 17:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India has offered to host a Round Table of the North and Central Asian Oil and Gas supplying countries with principal Asian buyers in the last quarter of the current calendar year; the Rajya Sabha was informed today (August 2, 2005).

Ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, as supplier countries, and China, Korea, Japan and Turkey, as importing countries, are being invited for the Round Table, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said responding to supplementaries during Question Hour.

He said the proposed Round Table would be the second between principal oil producing and oil consumer nations of Asia.

The earlier one, held here in January this year, had brought together the principal oil producing countries of West Asia and South East Asia in their first-ever structured encounter with Ministers of principal Asian oil consuming countries, he said.

"Recognizing the importance of the dialogue, the Ministers concerned agreed to meet every year," Aiyar said.

The extensive bilateral interaction in which India was engaged at present aimed at promoting linkages across the world in hydrocarbons area to set up long-term engagements as also acquire foreign assets with a view to boosting "our" energy security interests, the Minister said.

Responding to supplementaries regarding the Iran gas pipeline, he said the Joint Working Group was scheduled to meet in Islamabad this month.