IRAN: Indian oil minister to visit Iran

India's Minister for Oil and Natural Gas Murli Deora will visit Iran tomorrow and talk to the Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding the 22-billion- dollar deal to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Iran.

The Indian oil minister during his meeting with President Ahmadinejad on Thursday will ask Iran to honour the LNG deal signed in June 2005, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported today.

Deora will make a day-long unscheduled stopover at Tehran on his way back from a week-long tour of energy-rich nations of Syria, Algeria and Egypt.

Besides the deal to ship gas in its liquefied form, Deora is also likely to discuss the price expected by Iran for exporting gas through the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline.

Baja