ISLAMABAD, April 20: India was fully on board and committed to take part in the $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project to be started in 2008, a senior government official said on Friday.

"We have been assured by the Indian government that it has no plan to abandon the IPI gas pipeline project under American pressure," Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary Ahmad Waqar told Dawn on Friday.

“Reports to the contrary that appear occasionally from Indian sources may be attributed to political needs, not real intentions,” he claimed.

"There is no confusion in our mind that India has joined the three-nation gas pipeline project," the secretary petroleum said, adding that during the recent Saarc summit in New Delhi, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was assured by his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh that his country was serious about the project.

Mr Waqar, however, said that Pakistan was pursing both bilateral and tri-lateral approaches to ensure that the project was not abandoned for any reason.

"In the first place, India has assured both Pakistan and Iran that it is very much part of the project, but in case it does not join the project due to any reason, Islamabad and Teheran would complete it," the petroleum secretary said.

The growing energy requirements of India and Pakistan, he said, had forced both the countries to have a certain feasible gas pipeline project.

Mr Waqar said that Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) had recently approved the gas sharing arrangement with India under the IPI project.

Under the Phase-1 of the project, Iran would deliver about 2.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (BCFD) at the Pakistan border that would be equally shared by both India and Pakistan.

Under the Phase II, 3.2 BCFD of gas would be transported by Iran, bringing the total gas supplies to 5.3 BCFD from Tehran. Of these supplies, Pakistan and India would get 2.1 BCFD and 3.2 BCFD, respectively, the secretary petroleum said. The petroleum secretary said documentation relating to the project would be finalised next month.