CA-NEWS (TM) - A summit meting of the leaders of Turkmenistan and Pakistan is expected to be held in Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat in December to revive the stalled project to build a natural gas pipeline from the ex-Soviet state to the east, informed sources said here on Wednesday.

Ashgabat and Islamabad agreed in 2002 to build a 1,700 kilometre (1,060 mile) pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan but the project has stalled because of the security situation in Afghanistan.

The summit, proposed for December, is the latest sign of growing momentum around the project following a series of recent high-level talks between regional leaders and the signing of a framework deal in Kabul on Monday, reported Pakistan Observer.

President Asif Ali Zardari and his Turkmenistan counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov have agreed in telephone talk to hold the meeting in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat.

"President Zardari would participate in a December meeting of the heads of states of the participants of the project," the sources reported following the conversation.