October 23, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 16,1423

ASHKHABAD, Oct 22: Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov called Tuesday for United Nations backing for an ambitious pipeline project to transport gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan.

The former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, which possesses vast untapped reserves of gas, has been pushing the link that would open up its energy riches to global markets since the fall of the Afghan Taliban regime last year.

Niyazov, speaking after talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said the project to construct the 1,500-kilometre pipeline at a cost of two billion dollars would help bring peace to Afghanistan.

The still-unbuilt pipeline through Afghanistan “will help bring peace to Afghanistan in as much as it will provide additional income to the state,” the Turkmen leader said.

“We would like the United Nations to support the initiative of the three states (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan) about the construction of this pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan,” he added.

The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are expected to gather in the Turkmen capital Ashkhabad on Oct 26-27 to sign an agreement concerning the construction of the link.

Uncertainty, however, continues to dog the project, which analysts say would only be viable if it were also to provide gas to India — considered unlikely amid simmering tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi. Annan, for his part, called for a consolidation of peace in Afghanistan.

The international community and countries in the region have to take steps “not only from a regional perspective but also from a global perspective so that Afghanistan does not revert to the state it was in before,” he said.

Annan, who is on a 12-day tour of eastern and central Asia, was due to leave Turkmenistan on Wednesday and return to New York on Thursday. —AFP