State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain yesterday sent a letter to the Indian energy minister regarding the gas pipeline as well as issues to be discussed during the January 9-11Saarc summit in Dhaka.

Bangladesh hopes to reach an understanding with India on energy issues during the Myanmar meeting, sources said, adding that the prime ministers of India and Bangladesh may also discuss common energy issues in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Saarc summit.

A cabinet committee earlier shelved a transnational gas pipeline project proposed by a private company on the grounds that such a scheme requires political tie-in from the governments involved.

Following that decision, the prime minister formed a secretary-level committee to scrutinise various aspects of a transnational gas pipeline that would carry gas from Myanmar to India's Tripura, entering Bangladesh in the east and exiting in the west to West Bengal.

Energy ministry sources said the secretarial committee will submit a set of recommendations based on its findings, which the ministers of finance, energy and foreign affairs will then discuss. They will then discuss the matter with the prime minister. The government intends to finalise its position on the issue before the Saarc summit.

Earlier, the finance minister said that Bangladesh will not pursue the pipeline proposal as an independent issue with India. Rather it will try to settle this issue in concert with a host of others, such as Bangladesh-Nepal transit through India and the removal of tariff barriers for Bangladeshi exporters to India.

The concept of the transnational pipeline is eight years old, but in recent times the Myanmar government has stepped up pressure to promote the idea, including inviting Bangladesh and India to sit on energy issues in Yangon in early January.