Islamabad: Buoyed by the agreements on tackling terrorism and free trade, India tonight (Jan 2, 2004) envisaged an "extremely successful and historic" SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit, but Pakistan, which has shown uncharacteristic flexibility on certain key issues, continued to press for a sustained bilateral dialogue on Kashmir outside the framework of the regional grouping.

The approval by the Foreign Ministers of three documents - an Additional Protocol on Terrorism, a framework for free trade (SAFTA) and a SAARC Social Charter - led to a highly positive projection of the three-day summit, starting Sunday (Jan 4), by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha who told reporters tonight that "we have made very significant breakthroughs" and the Islamabad summit is indeed going to be "extremely successful and historic".

Islamabad refrained for the first time from making its customary reference to Jammu and Kashmir at the Foreign Ministers' meeting where Sinha and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri publicly embraced each other.

But the guessing game on whether Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who arrives in Islamabad tomorrow (Jan 3), will meet President Pervez Musharraf or his Pakistani counterpart Zafarullah Khan Jamali continued although it seems unlikely that such a meeting will not take place.

Sinha maintained that he was not in a position to end the "suspense", telling reporters, "I would like you to remain in suspense for now."