New Delhi - India has scheduled talks with Turkey and Israel next month for a pipeline project that could help it access crude supplies from the Central Asian and Caspian region, a news report said Tuesday.

"It is not a simple project," Turkish energy minister, Hilmi Guler, told the Mint business daily. "In one month there will be a trilateral meeting between India, Israel and Turkey. This meeting is likely to be held in Turkey."

Guler, part of the delegation accompanying Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which concluded its five-day India tour with a visit to the IT hub of Bangalore Monday, said some feasibility studies for the project had been carried out by Turkey.

The project involves piping oil and gas from Turkey to Israel and then shipping it to India.

The first phase of the proposed pipeline will supply crude from the Caspian region to Ceyhan port on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

After the crude reaches the Ceyhan port, it will be transported through an undersea pipeline to Israel from where it would be connected to the Eilat port on the Red Sea.

From Eilat, India could take crude through tankers avoiding the Suez Canal, the report said.

The proposal comes after a trilateral pipeline project linking Iran and India and passing through Pakistan, failed to materialize owing to disagreements over costs and US opposition to the project.

Progress has also been slow in talks on another transnational energy project, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is backed by the US. (dpa)