Friday, April 8 2005 12:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Ahead of the visits of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today (Apr 8, 2005) held a breakfast meeting with Left leaders during which they expressed satisfaction with Government's foreign policy.

External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh briefed the Left leaders on the high-profile visits at an hour-long meeting attended by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) leaders Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury, CPI (Communist Party of India) leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja, RSP (Rashtriya Samajwadi Party) leader Abani Roy and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas.

Later, Yechury told reporters that the Left parties were happy with the Government's foreign policy direction.

"On the foreign policy sphere, the Government is going according to our understanding in the Common Minimum Programme, the direction is good," he said.

Yechury said the Government was "absolutely on the right track" and that border disputes with China could be solved only through talks.

After the visit of the Chinese Premier, the understanding between India and China would be "better", he added.

Raja said they had been informed that Musharraf would be in India for 48 hours and the Left parties had congratulated the Government for successfully running the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus.

"This was a good Confidence-Building Measure and efforts to foster peace between India and Pakistan should continue," he added.

The External Affairs Minister told reporters that the meeting today was "exclusively" to brief the Left parties about the visits by the Chinese and Pakistani leaders.

"We will do the same exercise with Opposition leaders also. They are all with us on this," he said.

While Jiabao will be in India for three days from tomorrow, Musharraf will arrive on April 16.

Asked about a resolution adopted at CPM's 18th party Congress yesterday asking the Government to severe military ties with Israel, Yechury said, "Our stand is that Israel should demolish the wall with Palestine, otherwise India should consider sanctions against it."

The resolution, moved by West Bengal Chief Minister and Polit Bureau member Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and seconded by Central Committee member M A Baby, asked the Government to call for international sanctions against Israel and an end to the "illegal occupation of Palestinian and other territories."