Islamabad: Buoyed by the decision to hold the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Summit in Islamabad in January 2004, Pakistan has said that this would help create an atmosphere for initiating a "composite dialogue" with India.

The SAARC foreign secretaries' decision to hold the much-deferred summit in Islamabad on January 4-6 was a "victory" for Pakistan's diplomacy, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said, adding he hoped it would pave the way for reduction of tension between the two countries.

He said the meeting would help in "creating the right atmosphere for the initiation of composite dialogue process that the two countries were currently interested in holding."

Kasuri said that though the SAARC Charter did not provide scope for raising or discussing political or bilateral issues, the summit would provide an opportunity for the heads of the governments for bilateral meetings on the sidelines.

"Bilateral talks or disputes are not discussed at SAARC but the very fact, that the SAARC meeting is held, will help in reducing temperature in the South Asian region," he was quoted as saying.

To a question, the Minister said Pakistan was sincerely interested in starting the dialogue process with India. The entire international community, he added, had been urging the two countries to initiate the process to resolve their outstanding disputes, including the core Kashmir issue.

The Minister said the only reason the SAARC process did not take off was the continued tension between Pakistan and India. "I think it is in the interests of all the countries of the South Asian region that SAARC process takes off," he added.

PTI