New Delhi: India on December 18 hit out at Pakistan for putting off SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit on ''specious'' grounds and stymieing economic progress and asserted it will be "ready and willing" to participate provided progress was made on substantive issues before the regional grouping.

"We did not say no (to the Summit). We are still fully committed to the SAARC Charter and the SAARC process," External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said in Lok Sabha during Zero Hour while responding to the issue raised by Congress Chief Whip P R Dasmunsi.

''It is our hope that fresh dates will be fixed for the SAARC Summit and India will be ready and willing to participate, provided we make progress with regard to the substantive issue of SAARC,'' he said.

Dasmunsi had on December 17 urged the government to clarify its position on SAARC and whether it was going to participate in the Summit.

''On December 9, Pakistan, which was supposed to host the SAARC Summit, unilaterally announced its postponement on considerations which can only be considered as specious,'' he said.

Accusing Pakistan of dragging its feet on negotiations on South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and on a free trade arrangement (SAFTA), he said Islamabad had not extended on a reciprocal basis the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment to India.

At a meeting in November, Pakistan offered India preferential tariffs on 250 items out of which 146 were on the Negative List, which meant that India cannot export those items.

PTI