Monday, September 26 2005 17:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: SAARC countries have been discussing taking on board Afghanistan in the seven-member regional grouping.

"We have been talking to each other about the possibility of Afghanistan joining as a new member," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who returned from the US last night, told reporters here today (Sept 26, 2005).

This figured during the meeting of SAARC Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. All the ministers agreed that SAARC meet in Dhaka in November would be a 'landmark' summit.

He said it was agreed that there should be a 'substantive' agenda for this summit. "Our effort should be to move SAARC from a stage of declaratory statements to a stage of actually doing some collaborative work," he said.

The minister had an exchange of views on the setting up of the Poverty Alleviation Fund as also on specific proposals dealing with disaster management in the light of the tsunami that affected several SAARC nations.