The World Bank-appointed neutral expert on the Baglihar Dam issue on Wednesday extended the December 31 deadline given to Pakistan to answer technical questions on the hydropower project by a month.

Neutral expert Raymond Lafitte extended the deadline because Pakistan 'did not' receive some technical data from India, which was imperative to prepare replies to certain technical questions, official sources said.

However, Pakistan has received most of the technical data on the project from India, they said.

Lafitte had on October 19 convened a meeting of Indian and Pakistani officials in Geneva where the two countries were given the technical questions about design standards for the hydropower project.

"The neutral expert is likely to convene the next meeting some time in the last week of January or the first week of February," the sources were quoted as saying in Pakistani daily The News.

The World Bank appointed Lafitte as the neutral expert to resolve the dispute for the 450 MW power project in May after Pakistan said construction of the project violated the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.