MNA reported that Iran and Pakistan gas pipeline will be completed on schedule in 2014 despite the US pressures to head off the project.

Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president of Iran remarks vowing completion of a multi billion dollar gas pipeline to Pakistan on time downplaying financial woes and US pressure on Islamabad to scrap the project.

Pakistan and Iran signed a deal in 2010 under which Tehran would supply gas to its eastern neighbor from 2014 with sales to reach up to 1 billion cubic feet per day by mid-2015. The project envisaged a pipeline, 900 kilometers in length built from Assaluyeh in southern Iran to the border with Pakistan.

Another 800 kilometers pipeline was also needed inside Pakistan to receive gas from Iran's South Pars field in the Persian Gulf. The plans to complete the pipeline in Pakistan have run into difficulty over reluctance by investors who fear they could be hit by sanctions.

Pakistan insists the pipeline is vital to efforts in overcoming the energy crisis it faces but the United States has expressed strong objections to the project. It is urging Islamabad to abandon it because of sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

Pakistan, which produces just 80% of its own electricity needs, sees the USD 7.5 billion gas project as a partial answer to the crisis which has led to blackouts and has suffocated industry. Iran which has the world's second largest gas reserves is rapidly developing its production but can only export a small part of it due to lack of pipelines or liquefaction infrastructure.