As per earlier decision, a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) is supposed to be signed by the three nations -- Bangladesh, Myanmar and India -- for installation of the proposed gas pipeline.

Sources said the head of Energy Planning Department of Myanmar put forward the proposal in a letter recently to the chairman of Petrobangla, the state-owned hydrocarbon agency.

They are both members of the technical committee that will settle the technicalities of the venture for striking the deal the three nations have agreed upon in principle.

Energy Ministry sources said Bangladesh was yet to reply to the Myanmar side, "as the country has not made any decision as yet regarding the proposed meeting of the technical committee".

Earlier, the first meeting of the three nations was held in Myanmar January 11-12 with energy ministers of the respective countries attending the meet.

As per decision of the ministerial meeting, a technical committee comprising representatives of the three countries was formed which held its first meeting on February 24 in Myanmar's capital Yangon.

The committee prepared a draft MOU and decided to meet next in Dhaka to sign agreement on the tri-nation pipeline, preliminarily meant for pipeline export of gas from Myanmar to India.

From the beginning, Bangladesh has said that it would not sign any deal on gas pipeline unless India accepted its three conditions. The conditions are allowing Bangladesh (a) to export goods to Nepal and Bhutan through Indian corridor (b) to import electricity from those two countries through Indian territories and (c) measures to reduce huge trade imbalance with India.

As per claim of State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, the Indian energy minister agreed to accept these three conditions of Bangladesh. But, later the Indian foreign ministry reportedly warned their energy ministry against accepting such conditions in signing any MOU on the gas pipeline.