Islamabad, Feb 24, IRNA-Framework agreement on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is to be signed in May this year. Pakistan's top economic newspaper "Business Recorder" in its Friday issue wrote that the agreement would be signed after trilateral talks in Tehran in May.

To arrive at a common ground on gas pricing, the daily added the sub-group of Iran-Pakistan Joint Working Group would meet in Islamabad in March prior to the ministerial-level meeting in Iran's capital.

Quoting a senior official of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the newspaper maintained that Pakistan would go for bilateral project if India opted to stay away from it.

The over seven billion dollar project is aimed at meeting growing energy needs of India and Pakistan, and Islamabad would pocket more than 600 million dollars per year as transit fee, as the pipeline would pass through its land.

Experts in Pakistan and India have described the project as the "pipeline of peace".

India will also save around 300 million dollars per annum as for its fuel import bill is concerned.

The work on the proposed 2,700-km pipeline is expected to start next year and complete early 2010 and supply to some areas of Pakistan and northern parts of India would start benefiting from the gas pipeline.

The daily pointed out that Pakistan would receive a maximum of 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day while India 3.1 billion cubic feet, showing that about 5.6 billion cubic feet would be transported to Pakistan and India via the gas pipeline.