May 11, 2005	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1426

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NEW DELHI, May 10: Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday assured the Upper House that neither he nor the government would be influenced by any big power while taking a decision on the Iranian gas pipeline via Pakistan.

In response to a supplementary, Mr Aiyar said the discussions were on with Pakistan and Iran on the pipeline project, which has sufficient scope for success. Mr Aiyar said he plans to go to Pakistan for further talks on the issue.

“I have an invitation from Pakistan,” he added.

About gas from Myanmar, Mr Aiyar said there was only one hitch in the wording of the preamble of the agreement which, he hoped, would be resolved soon. Regarding assurance sought by the members of the House for a long-term pricing policy for petrol and diesel, Mr Aiyar said it was not possible to predict the prices of crude oil since India depends on imports to the extent of 70 per cent. —APP