Kuwait is in advanced talks with Iran to import gas to help meet spiralling domestic demand, it was reported yesterday.

Kuwait's Oil Minister Mohammad Al Olaim held talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh-Attar to discuss gas import prices, Al Rai reported in an unsourced report.

Daily Al Qabas said Al Olaim had asked a committee to specify the amount of gas Kuwait wants to import through an underwater pipeline from Iran, and added Iran was willing to co-operate.

'The committee will meet with the Iranian side in the next days to discuss the project details and determine the yearly amount to be imported,' Al Qabas quoted a source as saying.

Kuwait has said it was considering importing gas from Iran and Iraq to help meet rising demand from power plants and industry. It is also negotiating to import gas from Qatar.

Record oil export income is fuelling an economic boom across the Gulf, pushing up energy needs. Despite sitting on huge gas reserves, the world's largest oil exporting region is short of gas supplies to feed its own growth.

Kuwait began output from some northern gasfields not associated with oil production last month, a six-month delay from the planned start up. It aims to boost gas output from the fields to a billion cubic feet per day by 2015.

In March 2006, Kuwait said it had found an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of non-associated gas along with large amounts of condensates in its north.