Islamabad, April 25: India and Pakistan today denied the US had pressured them to pull out of the multi-billion dollar gas project with Iran and said they had agreed on the “fundamentals” of the agreement.

“We have not received any communication from the US expressing reservation on our participation in the gas project with Iran,” Pakistan petroleum minister Khwaja Asif said at a news conference he jointly addressed with Indian counterpart Murli Deora.

“We have agreed on the fundamentals of the agreement,” he said, adding a broad consensus on transit fees and transportation tariffs had been worked out.

Corroborating Asif’s statements, Deora said the issue had been discussed in a “positive spirit” that enabled the two sides to take the project forward.

But it would be implemented only if it proves commercially viable and gas supply is uninterrupted, he said.

Negotiations on the 2,600-km gas pipeline starting from Iran started in 1994 but remained stalled for over a decade because of Indo-Pak tensions.

Recently, the US voiced concern about the South Asian neighbours’ participation in the $7.4 billion project after its stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme.

The ministers did not disclose how much India would pay Pakistan as transit fee or what the transportation tariffs would be. That would be cleared by the governments after they heard out their representatives, they said.

“Both the countries realise the economic, strategic and political needs of the project and believe it will usher in a new era of economic prosperity,” Asif said.

He said the project had aptly been named the “peace pipeline” as it would not only meet gas needs but add a new dimension to Indo-Pak relations.

Yesterday, Deora held talks with officials from Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan on a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan. A framework agreement was signed despite the estimated cost of laying the pipeline from the Central Asian state going up to $7.6 billion from $3.3 billion.

The original deal signed by the three countries in December 2002 was revised to allow India to join the US-backed project to import gas by 2015.