TEHRAN. Nov 10: Iran and Pakistan agreed on Wednesday to boost trade and financial ties and said their joint gas pipeline and refinery projects were making progress. says Reuter

Tehran radio said Iranian and Pakistani officials signed agreements on shipping, maritime trade, investment protection and setting up a joint trade council at the end of a three day visit lo Iran by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

A communique said the ■ two sides "expressed their I appreciation over the speed with which the major bilateral economic projects such as the oil refinery and gas I pipeline were moving for- , ward." the Iranian Irna news agency said.

Bhutto told reporters on i Tuesday the two neighbours \ had agreed that work on the । Iran-Pakistan pipeline would j start in 1996. Iranian Tele- -vision, monitored by the Bri- 1 tlsh Broadcasting 1 Corporation (BBC) reported. 1 The Daily Akhbar on ' Wednesday quoted Bhutto as also saying work on a joint refinery would start next I year.

Bhutto on Tuesday assured Iran about her i country's aims in I Afghanistan, telling the ; Iranian parliament that Is- : lamabad did not support the ' Taleban Islamic Militia seen in Tehran as serving US in- I terests.

Iranian media reports say ' Pakistan organised the Tale ban and claim that the stu- I dent group was being financed by Saudi Arabia to ' serve US plans to open a 1 route for western trade and political influence to Central Asia through Afghanistan.

But Bhutto told deputies: "Pakistan has no intention of | making provision for the I land route facilities to | Central Asia," the English i language Iran News said on Wednesday.

She said the west already had Turkey as a route for trade with Central Asia and did not need further routes,

the paper said.

Iran has plans to expand Ite road and railway network to become a transport hub linking the former Centra) Asian Soviet Republics with the Gulf waterway.,

As Bhutto entered parliament. a female deputy. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi. objected to her clothing, apparently for not fully covering her hair as required by Iran's Islamic dress code for women, the newspaper

Resalat said on Wednesday.

"Bhutto accepted and therefore, entered parliament with a convenient covering. Resalat added.

The hardline daily Jomhurl Eslami asked "have others gone forward or have we retreated?" under photographs showing Bhutto fully covered on her last visit in 1993 and with her hair showing from under her headscarf during the present trip.