NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari denied on Thursday there was any deadline for India to sign a gas pipeline deal that includes Pakistan but he also expressed the hope that New Delhi would not buckle under US pressure to abandon the project for a rival pipeline from Turkmenistan.

“We have not set any deadline,” Mr Nozari was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying in Riyadh. India has since September not attended any meeting called to finalise the project, saying it wanted to resolve the transit fee issue with Pakistan before trilateral talks.

“What we are told is that they (India) have kept their interest in the project... Both Iran and Pakistan expect and welcome India to join the project... We have not and will not set any deadlines (for India to join the project),” Mr Nozari said.

PTI said New Delhi and Islamabad have reached broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling the gas through the pipeline passing through its territory. But the two nations have not yet agreed on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for allowing passage of the fuel.

“We have been told that there are differences between India and Pakistan over certain issues, one of them being transit fee,” Mr Nozari said. “We hope they resolve the differences soon.”