Construction of the oil pipeline from Myanmar to southwest China's Yunnan Province is still under discussion, a top provincial official has said.

"Whether, when and how to build it are yet to be decided," said Bai Enpei, secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

"Currently, we are still studying the plan and discussing it with Myanmar," said Bai, who is attending the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, in Beijing.

The plan of the oil pipeline, linking Myanmar's deep-water port of Sittwe with Yunnan provincial capital Kunming, was approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission last April.

"But many technical problems remain to be solved, which requires time," Bai said.

The long-awaited pipeline is expected to provide an alternative route for China's crude imports from the Middle East and Africa and ease the country's worries of its over-dependence on energy transportation through the Strait of Malacca.

In addition to Yunnan, Chongqing Municipality, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and Guizhou Province in southwest China will also benefit from the pipeline.

"It will be a good thing to both China and Myanmar, if the project is carried out," Bai said. "We will actively push for it."

(XInhua News Agency March 10, 2008)