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India Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday that his country would not be deterred by Washington's opposition to its plans.
"It is all rubbish," he told reporters referring to rumours India would shelve its plans to import gas from Iran, via a pipeline through Pakistan, because of concerns by the Bush Administration.
A day earlier US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in New Delhi that the US had already expressed its opposition to last month's agreement by the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers to go ahead with the US$4.5 billion pipeline linking Iran's South Pars gas field to India via southwest Pakistan.
But Indian Oil Ministry sources have said the price of gas would determine the overall viability of the project as Indian firms importing the product would have to be able to sell it to domestic consumers at an affordable price.
