Islamabad: Pakistan on October 17 welcomed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's reported decision to travel to Islamabad in January for the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit.

"Pakistan welcomes the decision," Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told AFP.

"Participation of all SAARC member countries in all SAARC meetings would be helpful towards regional co-operation," Khan said.

Vajpayee's decision was announced earlier on October 17 by Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh, a day after New Delhi announced withdrawal of troops from Pakistan and India's internationally recognised border.

"The Indian Prime Minister will go to Pakistan for the SAARC summit next year," Singh told 'Aaj Tak' news channel.

"He is going there for the SAARC summit, not for the bilateral process. Heads of state of all SAARC countries will be there."

Singh said Vajpayee's proposed attendance at the SAARC summit in Islamabad was another "indication that we (India) want peace in the region."

One of the most important elements in the process of consultations was finalisation of dates for the Summit, official sources said.

Pakistan has been delaying holding preparatory meetings on South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) by constantly postponing them, they pointed out.

''The entire process has to move forward before getting the leaders together,'' they said.

Sinha said, "If the SAARC Summit is held, the Prime Minister will definitely attend it. But the Summit should have an objective and it should not be just to see each other's faces."

Asked when a decision would be taken on Vajpayee attending the summit, he said, "this will be decided at an appropriate time".

Observing that there was no progress in the seven-nation grouping owing to Pakistan's "rigid stand" at this year's Kathmandu Summit, Sinha said, "if there is no progress, there is no point in holding the summit".

PTI