LAHORE, June 4: Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Saturday that Pakistan and India would assess the region’s petro-carbo potential during the three-day talks beginning in Islamabad on Monday (tomorrow). “Iranian and Central Asian gas reserves are our joint targets of interest. For us these (gas) reserves are not an alternative but additional source of energy. And besides discussing them, we would also assess the economics of their transmission,” he said.

He said India would immediately start supplying diesel to Pakistan at competitive rates provided the latter removed diesel from the negative list. “We can supply it to you from Karachi and other western or northern areas, and through a pipeline from Panipatt if we are able to evolve a stable and steady (diesel) relation.”

Speaking at a Safma (South Asian Free Media Association) reception soon after his arrival in Lahore through Wagah border for the three-day talks, he claimed that the US had not officially conveyed its objection to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to New Delhi.

“It was expressed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while replying to a question at a press briefing and I had conveyed to the US ambassador in New Delhi that we are aware of his country’s concerns about the pipeline and hope that it, too, is aware of our energy needs,” he said.

He said Pakistan had recognized the US concern over the pipeline, but the talks would continue on the proposed project because of the growing energy needs of both countries. Accompanied by senior officials of his ministry, members of the family and a press corps, the Indian petroleum minister later attended a reception at the Lakshmi Mansion where he was born 64 years ago. “This is my home,” he said while recalling his family’s days in Lahore and other cities in Pakistan before independence.

He will proceed to Islamabad for talks on Sunday (today) and spend a day in Karachi afterwards where he had served as India’s consul general for three years.

Referring to the dialogue on gas pipelines to India through Pakistan, he said it would be based on the three communiques issued after foreign ministers Kasuri and Natwar Singh’s meeting on Sept 6 last year and the Musharraf-Manmohan meetings on Sept 24 last year and in April this year.

“I and my Pakistani counterpart, Amanullah Jadoon, will assess the petro-carbon potential in the region and our needs in the light of these declarations. Gas in Iran is the largest sector after Russia and it is our joint target of interest,” Mr Aiyar said.

He said both sides would discuss gas supply from Turkmenistan via Hindukush or Herat (Afghanistan) and from Iran via Balochistan to Northern India, and asses which was the economical source.