NEW DELHI, May 28: Iran’s ambassador to New Delhi said Tehran hopes to finalise a gas pipeline deal with India and Pakistan by mid-year, in an interview released on Wednesday.

The 7.5-billion-dollar project which aims to transport natural gas from Iranian oilfields to Pakistan and India was discussed during a visit to India last month Iranian by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“It is hoped the trilateral agreement will be signed by the middle of summer this year,” Iran’s ambassador to India Sayed Mahdi Nabizadeh was quoted as saying in an interview in the latest issue of India’s Hardnews magazine.

The project was first mooted in 1994 but has been stalled by a series of disputes over prices and transit fees.

“After the president’s recent visits (in April) to India and Pakistan, we have witnessed positive progress regarding implementation,” the envoy said.

Indian and Pakistani energy ministers met in Islamabad last month and said they had made “significant progress” in discussions on transit fees and were hopeful work could start next year.

Also last month, Iran and Pakistan said they had ironed out hurdles delaying the 2,600-km scheme.

India has been under pressure from the United States not to do business with Iran, viewed in Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism and seen as bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.

But India, which imports more than 70 per cent of its energy needs, has been trawling for new supplies of oil and gas while ramping up domestic production to sustain its booming economy.

“This project will be the biggest economic project based on energy in the Asian region and these three important countries (India, Pakistan and Iran) will be united with each other and their economic interests will be tied up with each other,” the Iranian envoy said.

Earlier this year New Delhi told the US not to interfere in its dealings with Iran after a State Department spokesman said Washington would like India to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme.—AFP