Islamabad: Calling for an end to "mutual suspicions and petty rivalries" that have "haunted" the South Asian region, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today suggested "greater sensitivity" among the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) nations to the security concerns of each other as a landmark summit of the 7-nation regional grouping opened with Pakistan eschewing its customary reference to the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

Unprecedented security measures were in operation as Vajpayee and the other leaders of South Asian region assembled in the swanky Jinnah Convention Centre to debate over the next three days issues of economic co-operation, terrorism and other concerns with agreements having already been reached for free trade among them and also on additional obligations on each State to tackle terrorism.

Pakistan kept its promise of not raising Kashmir at the summit unlike in the past, but its Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, in his inaugural address, emphasised that political disputes needed to be addressed "in a just and realistic manner" failing which ideas like a common economic and monetary union would remain a distant dream.

Differences and disputes had to be overcome in a "climate of mutual confidence", he told leaders from Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives besides India.