Tuesday, November 8 2005 13:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahamed, will represent India at the SAARC Ministerial meeting in Dhaka later this week, official sources said today (Nov 8, 2005).

Ahamed will be going in place of K Natwar Singh who was yesterday (Nov 7, 2005) divested of the External Affairs Ministry portfolio in the wake of Government ordering a judicial probe into allegations made in the Volcker Committee report on pay offs to him and the Congress party in Iraqi oil deals during the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001.

Ahmed, who was on an official visit to Sudan, has since returned to the capital.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be attending the two-day SAARC Summit of the seven-nation grouping from November 12.

The Summit will be preceded by meetings of SAARC Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries. The Summit was deferred twice, first due to the Tsunami disaster and then because of India pulling out expressing concern over developments in Nepal as also the security situation in Bangladesh.