"Our position on Iran-Pak-India gas pipeline project is different from that of the United States," which was against the project in the face of Iran's hidden nuclear programme, a senior EU official said in Brussels.
"We do not accept the hidden and secret nuclear programme of Iran...but we have no negative position on the trilateral gas project, which is still at the study level," the official said.
Energy dialogue is one of the key areas of India-EU cooperation after the bilateral relationship was upgraded to "strategic partnership" level last year.
The EU, which has tremendous expertise on energy conservation, is scheduled is to kick-off energy dialogue at the foreign secretary level on June 29 in Brussels.
The Indian delegation will be headed by Shyam Saran, foreign secretary. The dialogue is to cover all aspects of energy with special emphasis on energy security, particularly in the face of surging global oil prices.
Both India and EU largely depend on imports for their oil requirement. Energy is among the areas on which action plan is being worked out for strengthening India-EU cooperation.
This is expected to be unveiled during the next India-EU Summit scheduled for September 7 in New Delhi.
Asked if the EU would cooperate with India on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, EU officials, however, made it clear that it appears "far-fetched" at the moment.
India, which has already built several nuclear power plants indigenously, is in the process of developing a 500 mw fast-breeder reactor, using abundantly available local raw material thorium.
India is also building two 1,000 mw nuclear power plants with Russian collaboration at Koodamkulam in Tamil Nadu.
As energy and environment go hand-in-hand, the action plan on energy would cover environmental protection as well, the officials said.
The European Union has a lot of expertise in tapping renewable energy sources, as "green" electricity is being increasingly encouraged in Europe.
Wind energy is one area that has gained currency in India, particularly in states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
India has an installed capacity of wind energy of merely 3,000 mw as against the identified potential of 90,000 mw. By 2012, India proposes to add an additional 5,000 mw. Last year alone, 900 mw of wind power generation was added to the electricity grid in the country.
In Europe, wind energy continues to expand with installed capacity growing by 23 per cent to reach nearly 30,000 mw in 2003 from a mere 5,000 mw in 1999.
EU has a lot of expertise in energy conservation practices, including energy labelling, development of low power consuming white goods and bulbs.
