Islamabad: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Foreign Ministers today (Jan 2, 2004) began their two day conference ahead of the January 4 Summit to finalise draft pacts on a host of issues, including the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and on an additional protocol to the 1987 SAARC Convention on Terrorism.

The meeting, presided over by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, was attended by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Foreign Ministers of other member nations - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.

The Foreign Ministers formally met last night and approved the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) to pave the way for free trade in the region by 2006.

The Ministers last night also cleared the text of the additional protocol on terrorism aimed at freezing funding to terrorist organisations.

The SAFTA and the additional protocol on terrorism were earlier hammered out by the Foreign Secretaries of the seven nations at two days of talks that concluded yesterday.

The ministers were also expected to give their final nod to a slew of other agreements, which included finalisation of the social charter to initiate measures to alleviate poverty in the region.

The agreements finalised by the ministers would be signed by the heads of the Government at the three-day summit, beginning Sunday.

The ministers are also expected to discuss a draft SAARC Declaration ahead of the Summit.