ANKARA Head of Turkish Oil and Gas Pipeline Company (Botash) Gokhan Yardim said here Wednesday that the Turkish import of gas from Iran has been delayed due to insufficient readiness of some of facilities in Iran.

Earlier it was announced that the Turkey's gas imports from Iran will begin in late July 2001.

Speaking to Turkish CNN broadcasting network, he added that when these facilities are on stream then in all probability the imports will begin in the fall. He did not mention the exact date.

The Turkish officials have previously said that the laying of the pipeline in Turkey is complete with the exception of a 300-km section which is slated to be ready in late July.

Earlier, in March Yardim said that Turkey will lay 2,557-km pipeline inside the country until the end of 2003 to pipe the Iranian gas to over 57 cities.

The agreement to supply Iranian gas to Turkey was signed between the two countries in 1996 according to which Turkey will import two billion cubic meters of gas annually in the first stage and about 10 billion cubic meters of gas in subsequent stages.

Iran has completed laying the pipeline to the Turkish border according to the timetable envisaged in the agreement and lit the gas torch on the border in early March 2000 indicating that the pipeline is ready for functioning, but Turkey fell short of completing the network on the Turkish side and said that it would compensate Iran for the delay.