June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

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ASHKHABAD, June 27: Turkmen, Afghan and Pakistani officials have agreed on a route for a new trans-Afghan natural gas pipeline that has been under discussion for nearly two decades, Turkmenistan’s state newspaper reported on Friday.

Following three days of meetings here, the three countries’ ministers agreed the pipe should run from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad gas fields to Quetta via Kandahar, Neutralny Turkmenistan wrote.

The paper quoted a Pakistani official as saying that the project members had also been looking at a northern route through Kabul on to Peshawar, but considered it less convenient due to lack of necessary communications.

“The confirmation of the route is another significant step on the way to the realization of a large regional project,” said Afghan Deputy Minister for Industry and Mineral Resources Mir Mahfooz Nedai. The project had been put on hold because of the Afghan civil war and later the US-led war on the Taliban. — AFP