Pakistan and India hope to start building a $7 billion gas pipeline from Iran to South Asia by 2007 despite objections from the US, top officials from both countries said.

"We have made significant progress. We hope to complete the project by 2010," Pakistan's Petro-leum Secretary Ahmad Waqar said after bilateral talks with officials from India's oil ministry in New Delhi.
The proposal to build the pipeline has been on the drawing board for years but uneasy relations between Pakistan and India prevented any progress.
Nicholas Burns, a top official of the US State Department, said last month India had assured the US that any plans to sign energy deals with Iran were "years away" and existed only in the hypothetical realm.
But officials said talks to build the pipeline were progressing well.
"We shall go ahead," Waqar said when asked to comment on US objections to the project.
His Indian counterpart, Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathi, said talks had gained momentum.
"We have made significant progress. We are now talking about details of the project," he said.
He said the pipeline would initially bring 90 million cubic metres a day of gas, a third of it for Pakistan. The volume would be raised to 150 million cubic metres in 3-4 years.
Oil ministers from both countries plan to meet in New Delhi in February to review progress in the project, a jstatement said.
India, Pakistan and Iran would also discuss the project at another meeting in Tehran.