TEHRAN, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian reporter who writes for Wall Street Journal of the United States denied on Saturday an earlier report on newly signing of Iran-UAE gas deal.

    No new gas deal signed between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday but there was one in 2001, Roshanak Taghavi told Xinhua through telephone.

    Earlier on Saturday, Iran's English-language Press TV reported that Iran signed a 2 billion U.S. dollars gas deal with Crescent Petroleum of the UAE on Friday.

    The report, which was from Wall Street Journal article published on Friday, made a mistake on the signing time of the deal, said Taghavi, also the writer of the original article.

    Crescent of the UAE and the National Iranian Oil Co. signed a gas deal in April 2001, but original export plans were delayed because construction of offshore processing platforms for the deal were not completed by Iranian contractors until earlier this year, Wall Street Journal quoted Majid Jafar, Crescent's executive director, as saying.

    The UAE is the fourth largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries but it is in need of clean energy imports to fuel its rapid industrial growth.

    Despite a recent decline in world oil prices, gas prices in the Persian Gulf states, particularly in the UAE are on the rise.

    "Natural gas is a fuel of choice for clean and efficient power generation" in the UAE, said Crescent's Jafar.

    According to the 2001 gas deal, Iran, which has the world's second largest natural gas reserve after Russia, has spent around 1.5 billion dollars on the project to build a 280-kilometer undersea pipeline linking Iran's Salman offshore gas field to Crescent's gas-processing facilities in Sharjah of UAE.

    As part of the deal, another Sharjah-based company, Dana Gas PJSC, will transport and process the Iranian gas.

    First exports could begin within months, but fresh corruption allegations from Iran's government threaten more delays, Wall Street Journal said.

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in September that he would endorse the deal as long as it was concluded based on regional market prices, according to the report.