KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia on Saturday said it hoped the obstacles holding up the completion of the billion dollar joint venture gas pipeline with Thailand would be resolved quickly because the delay is causing the cost of the project to spiral.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia wants the project to be accelerated.

The pipeline will take gas to southern Thailand from the Malaysia-Thailand joint development area along their maritime border. Construction has been stalled by strong opposition from Thai environmental groups.

Last December, Thai police clashed with anti-pipeline demonstrators in an incident which left dozens injured. The pipeline, which links Malaysia and Thailand with an offshore field, will come ashore in Thailand's Songkhla Province.

Syed Hamid said he anticipated further delays to the project due to changes in the pipeline route and the need for land acquisition and environmental assessment studies.

"We want it to move fast. But they (Thailand) have to respond to their public. But on our side, the delay is costing us money," he told reporters at the end of a three-day Malaysia and Thailand Commission Meeting.

The Malaysian foreign minister declined to reveal how much national oil company Petronas was losing in the stalled project.

Syed Hamid's Thai counterpart Surakiart Sathirathai made it clear the project would move ahead.

"The (Thai) government is supportive of the project. The government has no policy to delay the project," he said.

Surakiart said both Petronas and its Thai oil counterpart were actively engaged in ironing out some "technical issues".