Sujay Mehdudia India very much willing to go ahead with the deal, says Murli Deora India to hold talks with Pakistan on transit issue Energy security remains our priority, says Minister Drawing flak from the Left for "moving slow' on the $7.4-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the government on Monday said it was hopeful of getting started on the much delayed trilateral talks in the next few weeks. Iran has sought three weeks to finalise all details. "I met the Iranian Petroleum Minister, Gholam Hosein Nozari, on the sidelines of the day-long summit [of oil producers and consumers] in Jeddah on Sunday. I assured him that India was very much willing to go ahead with the pipeline. Almost all the bilateral issues have been sorted out and now only trilateral talks are left to be held,' Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said on his return here. Mr. Deora said he would also hold talks with his Pakistan counterpart on the transit fee issue. "There has been a change of regime in Pakistan and a new Petroleum Minister has taken over recently. I have already interacted with him once and will not hesitate to meet him to sort out the transit fee issue so that it paves way for trilateral talks. Our policy has been to ensure energy security for India and that remains our priority.' Official sources said Mr. Nozari had sought three weeks to set right all issues. "The meeting of Oil Ministers of the three nations is mostly likely to take place in Tehran next month,' Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan, told journalists on the sidelines of a seminar here. Against price revision clause The sources said India wanted Iran to hand over custody of gas at the India-Pakistan border, and not at the Iran-Pakistan border, to cut transit risks through the neighbouring country. New Delhi also opposed a price revision clause that Tehran sought to insert in the Gas Sales Agreement. India is pressing Iran to dedicate a particular gas field for the IPI pipeline and get its reserves certified by a third party. It has also sought to know about alternative supply sources in the event of depletion of reserves. India has been boycotting the IPI pipeline talks since August 2007 following differences over the fee demanded by Pakistan for passage of gas through that country. Its Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who holds the Petroleum portfolio also, is scheduled to visit India later this week.