NEW DELHI: Amid reports that the Iranian Supreme Economic Council had refused to ratify the June 2005 agreement for supply of gas to India and was seeking a higher price, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora is making an unscheduled stopover at Tehran to ``convince'' the Iranian authorities to honour the $22 billion deal for import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran.

Mr. Deora, who was scheduled to return to India on Wednesday night after a three-nation tour to Syria, Algeria and Egypt, decided to make a daylong visit to Iran in view of the latest developments and indications that the gas deal could require some very delicate negotiations and persuasion with the Iranian Government. Mr. Deora is scheduled to meet Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday and expected to take up with him the issue of natural gas pricing. Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan and senior officials of the oil marketing companies are accompanying him. Iran has recently indicated that it wants a higher price than the one agreed. Its Supreme Economic Council has not ratified the deal at the two-year-old price of $3.215 a million British thermal unit (mBtu).

It is understood that Tehran has sounded India that it now wants $5.1 per mBtu.

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