ISLAMABAD, July 7: Pakistan and Iran agreed on Thursday to start construction of $4.16 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline by April 2006 and decided to invite India for trilateral talks.

At the conclusion of two-day Pakistan-Iran talks on gas pipeline, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said all the paperwork about the project would be completed by all the parties concerned before April next.

Pakistan’s secretary petroleum and natural resources Ahmad Waqar said the two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Under the MoU, Iran would provide to Pakistan a comprehensive data sheet about the price, and quality and quantity of the gas it would reserve for the pipeline.

They were talking to reporters after the signing of the MoU. Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon and his visiting Iranian counterpart signed the document.

Mr Zangeneh said the paperwork about the project would be completed by April 2006. He said that after a 10-year period, the dream of exporting gas to Pakistan and India through pipeline would become a reality.

He termed the proposed pipeline a symbol of peace and stability in the region. He said Iran will be able to ink the final contract with Pakistan for exporting its gas by April.

He said both the countries had agreed that the project’s technical issues would be solved in the remaining 10 months so that Iran could make the final contract to sell its gas.

Responding to a question, he said Iran had increased its oil production by half a million barrels per day to stabilize prices. He, however, added that refining costs of crude oil had increased to 98 per cent because of which the global oil prices were on the rise.

Ammanullah Khan Jadoon, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, said Iran was willing to export gas to Pakistan and India. He said India had been invited to take part in the talks and discuss the project trilaterally so that issues pertaining to the pipeline could be solved at a faster pace.

Responding to a question, he said secretary petroleum Ahmad Waqar would visit India on July 11 for two-day talks with his counterpart on the project.

He hoped that Mr Waqar would come from India with solid and concrete proposals that will lead to materialization of the project.

He said by 2010, Pakistan would start experiencing gas shortages and in the meanwhile it would be able to import gas from Iran. He said Pakistan needed gas from Turkmenistan, Qatar and Iran to maintain its GDP growth, which was unprecedented in its history.

Mr Waqar said Pakistani experts would examine the terms sheet to be provided by Iran in two months and then negotiate with the latter on the gas price, its quality and quantity. Pakistan would then sign the Gas Price Agreement (GPA). He said it would take five months to finalize the GPA after the submission of terms sheet by Iran.

He told a questioner that after the initiation of work on the pipeline, the project would take three years to complete.

Earlier, Iranian minister gave a cheque of $50,000 for flood-stricken people of Pakistan.

The Iranian minister also met President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and discussed the pipeline project. The two leaders desired initiation of work on the project as soon as possible.