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U.S., Pakistan talks on energy

Nirupama Subramanian

Islamabad for civilian nuclear pact

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States will begin talks on energy co-operation in Washington D.C. on Monday.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry said its delegation, led by Mukhtar Ahmed, energy adviser to the Prime Minister, would hold talks with U.S. Administration officials and representatives of private sector companies dealing in energy.

The delegation would also visit "relevant" U.S. facilities and laboratories, spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said.

The U.S.-Pakistan energy dialogue was announced during U.S. President George Bush's visit here in March.

Different needs

Islamabad has wanted a civilian nuclear agreement along the lines of the one the U.S. signed with India, although Mr. Bush virtually ruled it out saying Pakistan and India were "two different countries with different needs and different histories".

Ms. Aslam said Pakistan would be reiterating its position on nuclear energy at the talks. She said there was no conflict between Pakistan's proposed energy co-operation with the U.S. and its commitment to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline.

President Pervez Musharraf has said in a television interview that Pakistan had energy needs, and would pursue all possible avenues to meet those needs. "We would not like to compromise on our national interest because some other country's strategic interests are clashing with Pakistan's interests," he said.

Without naming the U.S., he said if any country wanted to stop Pakistan from participating in the pipeline project, it "should assist us in some form to bridge this [energy] gap, assist financially because we would not like to incur loss to our industry".

He said Pakistan was trying to expedite the pipeline project, and described as "un-diplomatic" remarks by an Iranian Minister that his Government was "not desperate" to sell gas to India or Pakistan that it would offer discounted rates to offset domestic gas subsidies in both countries.

Gen. Musharraf said he did not expect Iran to subsidise gas for Pakistan, but "we are not going to allow Iran to fleece us either".

He had spoken to the Iranian President three weeks ago, and the two had set a two-month deadline for resolving the gas pricing issue.

"If the Ministers and Secretaries are unable to reach an agreement on pricing formula, he and I will talk about it and try to resolve the dispute between ourselves," he said.

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