MUMBAI, Dec 26: India and Iran will hold bilateral talks this week in New Delhi to discuss the progress of a proposed $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and a separate liquefied natural gas deal between the two nations.

Iran’s deputy oil minister, Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, is scheduled to participate in these discussions on Dec 28 and 29, after arriving in India on Tuesday evening.

“The biggest challenge before us today is to find a way as to how do we structure the project in a consensual way,” an official from the Indian oil ministry, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters on Monday.

The official said the three countries had mutually agreed to set a four- to six-month target to finalise the tripartite agreement on the natural gas pipeline project.

“I can assure you that there is no change or delay in the schedule of finalising the project,” he said, responding to a newspaper report at the weekend saying the pipeline project was likely to be delayed by six months.—Reuters