Islamabad: Two days after India said a visit by the Pakistan Foreign Minister was unnecessary, Islamabad on September 20 used the diplomatic channel to formally invite Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for the January SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit by handing over the invitation to a senior Indian High Commission official.

The invitation from Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was handed over to the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, T C A Raghavan at the Pakistan Foreign Office, where he was called to receive the invitation.

According to Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan, the letter of invitation was delivered by Pakistan's director general (South Asia) to Raghavan.

The SAARC summit was earlier scheduled to be held in January 2003, but was postponed owing to India's reluctance to attend.

Two days ago, Khan said Pakistan had dropped plans to send Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri to India "in protest" against External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's remarks that a visit was not required under SAARC rules.

Kasuri has already visited Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and handed over personally the invitations for the SAARC summit to the respective leaders and had planned to visit India, Maldives and Bhutan in October.

The invitation came amidst increasing allegations and rebuttals on cross-border terrorism on both sides lately despite the latest peace initiative was announced by Vajpayee in April 2003.

PTI