Oil ministers from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) signed a draft framework on Thursday, agreeing to start construction work of the TAPI gas pipeline project in 2010.

The project cost has risen to 7.6 billion U.S. dollars from originally estimated 3.3 billion dollars in 2004, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.

After two-day talks in the Pakistan's capital, the ministers from the four nations told a joint press conference that the construction work on the delayed TAPI pipeline project will be inaugurated in 2010.

The talks on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project have been underway since 2002. In 2006 India was invited as an observer to the project, funded by the Asian Development Bank.

This is the first time that India is participating in talks on the pipeline as a full-fledged member.

The price increase was due to sharp increase in price of steel, increase in construction cost and increase in the cost of compressor stations, said Khwaja Asif, Pakistani Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources.

Despite the significant increase in project cost estimates, the project is still considered as economically and financially viable, the APP quoted Asif as saying.

The 7.6-billion-U.S. dollar pipeline project starts from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad field through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan, and finally extends up to Pakistan-India border.

Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, whose visit marks the first formal contact between India and Pakistan since the new Pakistani coalition government took office last month, will also hold talks with Pakistan on the 7-billion U.S. dollar Iran- Pakistan-India (IPI) project on Friday.

The IPI talks will be the first time between the two sides since last June.

New Delhi has not been attending talks on the IPI project since mid-2007 over the differences on the transit fee and transportation tariff to be charged by Pakistan for Iranian gas sent to India.

Analysts say Deora's talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Asif will be aimed at narrowing down these differences.