Pakistan ready to allow gas pipelines to cross Pakistan into India

"Pakistan's support to Iran-India pipeline project is one example of our commitment to regional cooperation," he told a conference of oil and petroleum ministers of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). The 10-member ECO comprises Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and five Central Asian republics of former Soviet Union. Tarar said Pakistan-Turkmenistan gas pipeline project could also be extended into India. Pakistan's military government has repeatedly offered to guarantee security for the trans-regional projects. "We are prepared to give any reasonable guarantee to our neighbour," Islamabad's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf told a conference of investors and oil and gas industry executives in Islamabad recently. Musharraf said India was in need of large quantity of gas and had no other alternative. Therefore, "the assurances we are giving them have to be taken seriously". However, India is opposed to the route, fearing that Pakistan would cut off the gas supplies in the event the perpetual tension between the two arch rivals who have fought three wars over since their independence in 1947. India prefers an undersea route to bypass Pakistan.

(la/dpa)