Wednesday, February 9 2005 21:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today (Feb 9, 2005) said she favoured early convening of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit, which was postponed after India pulled out of it.

"Certainly we are in favour of an early holding of the Summit and we will do our best to help hold it as soon as possible," she said replying to questions from reporters after her meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad.

The SAARC summit was to be held in Dhaka on February 6-7 but was postponed after India decided not to attend it in the view of security situation in Bangladesh and political developments in Nepal.

Aziz said Pakistan was endeavouring to hold the summit at the earliest to give further momentum to the process of SAARC for regional cooperation.

"Pakistan wants the SAARC process to move forward and further strengthened," he said.

Later, the official APP news agency quoted Pakistani officials as saying that the two leaders, who held one-on-one talks, expressed disappointment at the postponement of the Dhaka Summit.

Aziz emphasised that it was important that the process of SAARC should not be stalled as a result of postponement of the summit, it said.

"The Sri Lankan President assured the Prime Minister her country's full support in this respect," the APP report said.