NEW DELHI, Feb 7: India believes that an agreement on a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline from oil and gas rich Iran to energy-starved India through Pakistan could be signed by June, an official said on Wednesday.

“The minister has said that the agreement on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline is likely to be signed by June this year,” an Indian oil ministry spokesman told AFP.

A report in the Asian Age newspaper on Wednesday quoted Minister Murli Deora as saying that the new price offered by Tehran during talks last month “looks all right for us.” “Subject to the satisfactory conclusion of the sale-purchase agreement, we may sign a deal with Iran by June,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Talks on the proposed 7.4 billion dollar project to supply Iranian gas to India through a 2,600-kilometre pipeline via Pakistan began in 1994.—Agencies