Signing of trans-Afghan pipeline postponed
A summit of the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan to sign an agreement about the construction of a
massive trans-Afghan pipeline has been postponed, Turkmen officials said. Presidents of the three countries had been
expected in Ashgabat to sign a framework agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to
Pakistan, across Afghanistan.
But Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf was unable to attend due to political developments in his country and asked
for the meeting to be postponed until after December 20.
The project to build the 1,500 km (900-mile), $ 2 bn gas link from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad fields across
Afghanistan to Pakistan has been on the table for 20 years and has a long and chequered history.
US energy company Unocal led efforts to build the line, but its plans were scuppered in 1998 when US cruise missiles
struck Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, leaving the project apparently aborted. However, since the fall of the
Taliban last year, the plan has been pushed back onto the energy agenda by regional leaders, who hope it will bring
enormous wealth to their impoverished region.
