Tehran: Iranian news agencies are carrying reports that India has exited from a gas pipeline project which it was earlier part of in association with Iran and Pakistan. The report flashed by the Mehr news agency cites the Pakistani ambassador to Iran as its source. The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline has been under discussions and negotiations ever since the 1990s.

"India definitely quitted the IPI gas pipeline deal," the report said, citing Pakistani ambassador to Iran, Muhammad Bux Abbasi, as saying here on Sunday.

Abbasi added that Pakistan plans to increase its crude oil import from Iran. Iranian officials, however, said India has not yet officially declared its intention.

In May this year, Tehran and Islamabad signed a $7.6-billion deal to supply gas from Iran to Pakistan. Under terms of the deal, Iran would initially supply 30 million cubic meters of gas per day to Pakistan which would later be increased to 60 million cubic meters per day.

Under the deal, gas supply to Pakistan from Iran would commence from 2013.

Construction of the so-called Peace Pipeline, which may be extended to India, will begin next year.

Conceptualised in the 1990s in a bid to ease the energy crisis in the Indian sub-continent region, the project has undergone torturous negotiations with proposed partners wrangling over technical and pricing details.

Ultimately, the pricing formula proved elusive, with Iran and India unable to agree on clear terms for delivery of gas on Indian borders.

Complications also arose with geo-political compulsions beginning to guide considerations as the United States of America expressed vocal opposition to any kind of agreement with Iran.

Should the pipeline be linked to all three countries, then it would run a massive 2,775 km.

Like India, Pakistan too faces massive shortfalls in electricity and plans to generate 4,600 megawatts from Iranian gas.

Islamabad too remains under constant pressure from Washington to abandon the project.