Islamabad/New Delhi, Pakistan and Iran Wednesday claimed to have "finally" decided to go ahead with a gas pipeline project without India's participation, and Indian officials termed the move a "pressure tactic".

"We have finally decided to go ahead with the project without New Delhi's involvement," a senior official of Pakistan's petroleum ministry said a day after the 11th Pakistan-Iran Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project concluded in Islamabad.

Requesting anonymity, he added the group had decided that India might be included in the project at a later stage.

He said the pipeline will have the capacity to carry the gas to the Indian border if New Delhi expressed its willingness to join the project.

However, India refused to attach much importance to the official's remark.

"There is no clarity on the subject," said a senior petroleum ministry official in New Delhi. "One of the interpretations that we can give is that these (statements) are just pressure tactics," he added.

Officials in New Delhi pointed out that there have been similar statements and reports from Islamabad in recent months that India was dropped from the tri-nation project.

At a press meet on Nov 13, Indian Petroleum Secretary M.R. Srinivasan had disputed such reports and noted that there had been only bilateral talks between Iran and Pakistan in Teheran.

"But contrary to media reports... they reread all the provisions of the contract and agreed on most of the contents," he said. Even reports on a "deadline" to India to join the project was later denied by Iran.

India has maintained that it is very much interested to participate in the project, but it still has differences with Pakistan on transportation tariff and transit fees.

India has refused to attend the trilateral talks, as it felt that the bilateral issues needed to be resolved first.

"Also, the gas price is on the higher side. We are also not desperate for the gas, as there are new sources for energy since the initiation of talks on the pipeline," said an official in New Delhi, adding that the project had to be commercially viable to ensure India's participation.

India planned to discuss the IPI pipeline project with Pakistan in the last week of November when Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora was to visit Islamabad to attend the steering committee meeting of the ADB-sponsored Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline project.

However, the meeting had been cancelled due to domestic developments in Pakistan. The next meeting on the committee may be held in Islamabad in February 2008.

The IPI project involves building a 2,775-km pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran's South Pars field to Pakistan and India. Expected to be completed in three to five years, its estimated cost is $7 billion.

Meanwhile, the 11th Pakistan-Iran JWG meeting discussed the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) and Intergovernmental Framework Agreement (IGFA).

H. Ghanimi Fard, Special Representative of Iran's Petroleum Minister, led his country's delegation whereas Farrakh Qayyum, secretary of the ministry of petroleum and natural resources, led the Pakistan delegation.

The Iranian team called on Paksitan's Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Ahsanullah Khan, who conveyed his government's firm support to the project and urged the two delegations to conclude their discussions on the GSPA and IGFA.

Without mentioning India, the minister said the project will begin as "soon as possible" and without any further negotiations.

The two sides agreed that they had covered a lot of ground on the project agreement at the bilateral level in the last couple of JWG sessions.

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