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Pak-Turkmen gas pipeline deal to be inked in Dec

ASHKHABAD: An ambitious project to build a gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan is expected to be launched next month at a summit here, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said Wednesday.

Niyazov invited his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai by telephone Wednesday to attend a three-way summit in Ashkhabad on December 26-27, the television network reported. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf also is expected to attend, it said.

The three presidents had been due to sign the agreement in October, but the summit was delayed at the request of Musharraf.

The project to build the 1,500-kilometre, two-billion-dollar gas link from Turkmenistan fields across Afghanistan to Pakistan has been on the table for 20 years and has a long and chequered history.

US energy company Unocal led efforts to build the line, but its plans were scuppered in 1998 when US cruise missiles struck Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. However, since the fall of the Taliban, the plan has been pushed back onto the energy agenda by regional leaders.—AFP

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