London: India and Britain will shortly reach an agreement on the question of repatriation of 2,500 "so- called" Indian asylum seekers in Britain.

The issue of Indians seeking asylum figured in the talks Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunkett on June 16.

Britain could understand the plight of people seeking asylum in Britain from countries ruled by dictators, but not from a democratic country like India, India's High Commissioner Ronen Sen told reporters briefing on the separate meetings Advani had with the British leaders.

Answering questions, Sen said roughly there were about 2,500 so called Indian asylum seekers in UK. Generally they destroy their travel documents and sometimes it becomes a long drawn and complicated process of verification.

"We have to work out a bilateral mechanism, so that the procedure can be streamlined," Sen said. "What we want to find out is whether they are actually Indian nationals who have lost their passports," he said.

Both sides agreed that it was not in the interest of India or the UK to have such asylum seekers.

Blunkett has accepted an invitation from Advani to visit India and the dates for the visit would be finalised shortly.

On the question of containing terrorism, Sen said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had given certain assurances to the USA and UK in the past. "It is for them to judge whether the assurances have been fully honoured or not. If you see, it is quite apparent that they are not fully satisfied," he said.

PTI