Islamabad: Pakistan on December 11 said it decided to postpone the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit after it learnt through "secret sources" that India invited Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit New Delhi from January 11 to 13, the dates on which the meet was proposed to be held.

Pakistan government earlier wanted to wait till the completion of the elections in Gujarat on December 12 to decide about postponement of the summit as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made Pakistan a centre of its electioneering, Foreign Minister Khurshid Muhammad Kasuri said addressing a meeting of editors of local dailies.

But it decided to postpone the summit as it learnt through "secret sources" that External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had invited the Japanese Prime Minister to visit New Delhi on the same dates, he said.

He alleged that India has hardened its stand on SAARC after it failed to achieve the desired objectives through "coercive diplomacy".

"By refusing to confirm the dates proposed for the 12th SAARC summit to be held in Pakistan, India created a situation where we were left with no option but to postpone the summit," Kasuri was quoted as saying by the official APP news agency.

PTI