WASHINGTON, Oct 1: The US is considering a proposal to help Pakistan meet its energy needs as part of its efforts to wean India and Pakistan away from building a pipeline for bringing gas from Iran, officials said.

US State Department officials, who were talking to a group of visiting journalists from South Asia, said that the US offer of nuclear cooperation to India was also part of its efforts to stop the construction of the proposed pipeline.

“They have not ruled out helping Pakistan meet its energy needs,” Pakistan’s charge de affairs in Washington, Mohammed Sadiq, told Dawn while commenting on the reported offer.

Asked if the US offer would also include civilian nuclear reactors, Mr Sadiq said: “It includes both conventional and non-conventional sources of energy.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington Jehangir Karamat told a US news agency that his country should have the same access to US civilian nuclear technology that President Bush has proposed for India.

The visiting South Asian journalists who met several senior US officials at the State Department quoted the officials as saying that a Congressional law binds the US government to oppose investment in oil and gas industry in Iran by any country, hence the opposition to the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

“For this very reason, we want Pakistan to think of other alternative sources of gas. But, if we want this we will have to take care of energy needs of these countries and think of ways to help them,’’ a State Department official said, adding that it was for this reason that the US signed the civil-nuclear energy agreement with India in July.