MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Iran will prepare by the year-end a legal framework for a project aimed to deliver natural gas from Iran to India and will get down to practical work in 2018, the RIA news agency cited Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday.

Novak also said that Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM plans to produce natural gas in Iran and will build a 1,200 km (750 mile) gas pipeline from Iran to India, RIA reported.