ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday denied the United States has been putting pressure on Islamabad over a planned trilateral gas pipeline involving Pakistan, Iran and India.
"There is no pressure on us," Aziz told reporters when asked whether the United States, which has already reportedly conveyed its concern to India over the project, had also raised the matter with Islamabad.
US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, said in New Delhi this week that Washington had reservations about the energy deal, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper.
Mulford had raised the issue in a meeting with Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, said the report, which comes amid mounting US concerns about Iran's nuclear weapons programme.
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a convenient cover for weapons development, a charge Iran fiercely denies.
Washington's concerns were likely to be raised again when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits India on March 16, the Indian newspaper said.
Rice will also visit Pakistan during her first regional tour after assuming the office.
The 4.5 billion-dollar project has been a talking point but it is yet to take off, although the Indian cabinet last month asked Aiyar to negotiate with Pakistan and Iran.
Aziz said he had asked Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to invite Aiyar and the Iranian oil minister will also be coming to Pakistan in connection with the project. He did not give any date.
Negotiations for the pipeline began in 1994 but little headway was made because of tensions between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947 from Britain.
But last month, foreign ministers of India and Pakistan signalled they want to go ahead with the pipeline linking Iran's South Pars gas field to India via restive south-west Pakistan.
03/12/2005 13:16 GMT