Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian and the accompanying delegation expressed satisfaction over their talks with the Indian side about Iran-India gas pipeline. At the end of two rounds of Indo-Iranian Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings on the project, Nejad-Hosseinian Wednesday told IRNA that the two sides discussed in detail the Iran-India gas pipeline through Pakistan and appraised each other of their respective positions in this regard. Nejad-Hosseinian said that Iran and India had previously agreed upon a proposal but Indian side Wednesday put up a new proposal which would be presented to Iran in detail for consideration. The official added: ”Iran is to present its proposals on structure agreement to India by mid-January 2006.” Nejad-Hosseinian said the Iranian side informed the Indian side about Tehran`s pricing formula for natural gas and replied to Indian side`s questions in this regards. According to the deputy Iranian oil minister the two sides agreed that Iran-India JWG on the gas pipeline project would meet again in the second half of January in Tehran. This meeting of Iran-India JWG on the gas pipeline project would be held after a meeting of the similar Iran-Pakistan JWG in the first half of January to study and taking a decision on the offered proposals would need a long time. Head of the Iranian delegation added: ”As a result, a meeting of the oil ministers of Iran, Pakistan and India which was supposed to be held sometime next month now would be held in March 2006.” Nejad-Hosseinian said: ”From my point of view today`s discussions with Indian officials were held in a cordial atmosphere and the results were encouraging and is expected that the final result will come out during the meeting of the oil ministers of three countries to be held in Tehran.” The Iranian official said that the agreements reached upon by the sides today would be put in black and white tomorrow for signing by the heads of the two delegations in a special ceremony. About the external pressures on India and US attempts to sabotage the Iran-India gas pipeline through Pakistan, Nejad-Hosseinian said: ”In today meeting some sort of external pressure on India was felt but I didn`t see impact of this pressure on the performance of the Indian side during the discussions.” He emphasized that the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project was going ahead according to schedule and India is committed to go ahead with the same. Deputy oil minister of Iran said that Indian officials are still very much interested in the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project as the project would benefit all the three countries. On the prospect of the pipeline project, Nejad-Hosseinian said: ”No doubt the implementation of the project would take some time as the final studies on the structure of the pipeline would start only after agreement of the oil ministers of the three countries.” According to the Iranian official the activities on the project would start after a structure is evolved and this may take around nine months time. Iranian deputy oil minister said: ”If everything goes according to the scheduled program the final design of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline would be signed after one and a half year and its implementation would take another forty months time.” Nejad-Hosseinian said: ”I believe that we would be able to deliver gas to India and Pakistan during 2010.” He said, ”Iran initially had proposed that Iran-Pakistan-India to be responsible to the construction and financing of their respective part of the pipeline to which the three countries agreed and a MoU was signed by the concerned countries, according to which, Iran was supposed to deliver gas to Pakistan at the Iran-Pakistan border and to India at the Pakistan-India border.” Nejad-Hosseinian added: ”But now Indian side has proposed that the project be implemented by one or two international consortia.” He said: ”As a result the Iran-India JWG would meet once more some time next month and the meeting of oil ministers has been postponed for a week.” The third round of discussions of the Iran-India JWG on Iran- Pakistan-India gas pipeline project began here Tuesday morning and it would continue till tomorrow. The last meeting of Iran-India JWG was held five months ago in Tehran