LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - India's finance minister,Palaniappan Chidambaram, said he is confident that a $2.6billion tax dispute with Vodafone would be settled,telling the Financial Times that a third round of talks will beheld this week.
"Vodafone has formally written to the government offering toengage senior government officials to find a way out of theproblem," he said in an interview with the FT.
"I'm confident we will resolve [the Vodafone] issue," hetold the newspaper.
Chidambaram said he was seeking to resolve the outstandingtax matter within the month.
Vodafone was unavailable for immediate comment whencontacted by Reuters.
An unnamed figure close to the company told the FT that thefinance minister was playing up the possibility of a deal.
On January 14, India's finance minister announced they woulddelay by two years implementation of controversial rules on taxavoidance to 2016 seen as a move partly designed to help solvethe dispute with Vodafone.