The US authorities intend to finance the development of the feasibility study for the region, first of all for Kazakhstan to define whether will the Trans-Caspian pipeline be profitable. "We will discuss with the Caspian states this issue, and review the developments," Mr Baucher said. The possibility of payment the expenses by the United States for the development of the feasibility study was announced earlier by Anne Derse, the President's nominee for the post of US Ambassador to Azerbaijani. Addressing Senate hearings in the US Congress, she emphasized that assimilation of the Caspian energy resources and their transportation to the world markets was one of the priorities of the US government's policy in this region. However, Iran's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, speaking at a press conference in Almaty, said that the construction of a Trans-Caspian pipeline between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan would be impossible without definition of the legal status of the Sea, and consent of all littoral countries, one of which his Iran. "The project is untimely as the legal status of the Caspian Sea is not defined, and the consent of all the littoral states is not to hand," the Ambassador said.