Dhaka: Bangladesh on December 22 said a visit by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was not a precondition for its Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to travel to New Delhi.

Anwsering queries on Dhaka's reported differences with New Delhi over the issue of presence of terrorist outfits in Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said Begum Zia, after assuming power, was making only "return visits" to foreign countries.

She goes to China on December 23, a return to the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji made to Bangladesh in January 2002.

Begum Zia visited India only once as Prime Minister in her first stint as head of government in early 1990s. Vajpayee was in Bangladesh in June 1999 at the invitation of the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Besides China, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat alliance government has hosted top leaders from Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand. Begum Zia visited Kathmandu (during South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit) early this year and was in Thailand earlier in December.

Vajpayee is one of the first few foreign leaders to congratulate Begum Zia after her party won the general elections in October 2001.

It is learnt that both Delhi and Dhaka have extended invitations to each other for summit-level meetings without any actual progress on the matter.

PTI