NEW DELHI, Aug. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- India has offered to host a roundtable of the North and Central Asian oil and gas supplying countries with principal Asian buyers in the last quarter of this year, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said Tuesday.

    Ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, as supplier countries, and China, South Korea, Japan and Turkey, as importing countries, are being invited for the proposed round table, Aiyar said in the Parliament.

    The proposed round table will be the second between principal oil producing and oil consuming nations of Asia hosted by India.

    Earlier in January this year, India brought together the principal oil producing countries of West Asia and South East Asia.     

    The New Delhi Round Table was the first-ever structured encounter with ministers of principal Asian oil consuming countries.

    Recognizing the importance of the dialogue, the ministers concerned agreed to meet every year.

    On the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the Indian petroleum minister said that the joint working group is scheduled to meet in Islamabad this month. Enditem