OTTAWA - Canada's Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, said on Tuesday he intends to meet the mid-June deadline on deciding whether to approve Enbridge Inc's Northern Gateway oil pipeline to the Pacific coast.

Canada's regulators recommended on Dec. 19 that the federal government approve the $7.9 billion pipeline, which would run 1,177 km from Edmonton, Alberta, through wilderness to the British Columbia coast

The government has 180 days to decide on whether to approve it, and Oliver said he is consulting with aboriginal groups as required.

"We would expect to meet the deadline," Oliver told a news conference.