Pak will go ahead with Iran gas pipeline project: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will go ahead with a project to build a pipeline to carry Iranian gas even if India decides not to join it, President Pervez Musharraf has said.

Musharraf expressed the hope that India would show interest in the completion of the project, the daily Dawn reported.

"However, If India would not be a part, then also the project would be completed," the paper quoted Musharraf as saying.

In a meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri, Musharraf said his country wanted positive development on the project and hoped that pricing issue would soon be resolved among the three countries.

Musharraf said no pressure would be tolerated on the multi-billion-dollar pipeline project. The paper did not specify what the pressure was.

Kasuri met Musharraf on Saturday to brief him about his (Kasuri's) recent visit to Iran and discussions with its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

Musharraf said Pakistan urgently needed energy as it was vital for fast pace of industrial development and talks in this regard were under way with other countries.

However, it did not mean that Pakistan was not interested in Iran-Pakistan-India project, he said.

On the Iranian nuclear programme issue, Musharraf said Islamabad supported talks between the European Union and Iran and wanted a diplomatic solution to the problem. "Use of force would only destabilise the entire region," he was quoted as saying.