India will sign a long-awaited agreement today to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan through a pipeline that would cross Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Official sources said in New Delhi yesterday that Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy has left for Ashgabat via Amritsar for the signing of the agreement.

Turkmenistan ,Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will sign the gas sales and purchase agreement for TAPI pipeline during an international gas conference in the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza.

AShgabat