Ajmer: Appreciating India's inititiative for normalising relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh Finance Minister, Saif-Ur-Rehman has expressed the hope that India's neighbour would reciprocate by creating the necessary conducive atmosphere for it.

"I am confident that the initiative taken by India would certainly yield good results in improving Indo-Pak relations," Rehman told reporters in Ajmer on May 19.

"Both India and Pakistan should work for a better and prosperous future forgetting the past," he said adding all the countries in the region need to work for betterment of the Indian sub-continent.

Commenting on the infiltration of Bangladeshis into India he said, "Poor persons from both the countries needed employment and the move hither and thither should not be considered as infiltration."

Rehman, who was in the town on a pilgrimage tour, offered prayers at the famous Dargah of Soofi Saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti and left for Delhi on May 20.

In Delhi he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister I K Gujral.

PTI