Ahead of next week's petroleum secretary-level talks between them, India and Pakistan have decided to adopt international standards for calculating transit fee for the proposed Indo-Iran gas pipeline through this country.

Pak vows safety for Indo-Iran pipeline

India and Pakistan have agreed that Iran should provide an independent third party certification of gas reserves in South Paras field, which would be dedicated for the multi-billion dollar project, Dawn daily quoted Pakistani officials as saying, adding that the 2 sides decided to adopt international standards to calculate the transit fee.

Indo-Iran gas pipeline ready by '10

The 2 sides also agreed that there should be a "fallback clause" in the trilateral framework agreement as a safeguard measure in case Iran is not able to provide guaranteed supplies to the project, it said.

The report came ahead of the second round of the Indo-Pak joint working group discussions at the petroleum secretary-level, scheduled for September 7 to 8 in Islamabad.

Indo-Iran pipeline full of risks: PM

The 2 petroleum secretaries would further deliberate upon issues relating to a framework agreement, land acquisition, reserve certification, gas demand in India and Pakistan, transit fee, project structure, gas pricing mechanism, pipeline size and other related subjects.

This would be followed by ministerial-level talks between India and Pakistan over the next couple of months to maintain a momentum of negotiations over the pipeline project.

Musharraf favours Indo-Iran pipeline

Petroleum ministry officials in Islamabad said about a dozen similar transit pipeline contracts had been initially identified to work out transit fee that Pakistan would get for allowing the 2,670-km pipeline from Iran's South Paras field to India.