US not against Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline:Bush

Islamabad, Mar 4 (UNI) US President George Bush today clarified that his country was not opposed to the proposed 7.2 billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

''Our beef with Iran is not the pipeline; our beef with Iran is the fact that they want to develop a nuclear weapon,'' Mr Bush said while interacting with the media along with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf after wide-ranging talks between the two leaders at the Aiwan-e-Sadr here.

Antagonistic remarks by senior US officials, at various times, had raised doubts on the completion of tri-nation pipeline project.

Washington has expressed concern over the pipeline, saying the project will breach Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, which forbids more than 20 million dollars of investment in Iranian oil and gas projects.

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, on a visit to Pakistan in January had dismissed the pipeline project as ''impractical''.

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