Friday, November 11 2005 18:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (November 11, 2005) hoped that the initiatives to be taken at the Dhaka SAARC Summit would contribute significantly towards realising the enormous potential for economic, social and cultural cooperation in the seven-nation grouping.

"This Summit will provide an opportunity to focus regional attention on a number of important initiatives that are being pursued by SAARC", Singh said before embarking on a three-day visit to Dhaka for the summit beginning tomorrow.

In view of the national mourning after the death of former president K R Narayanan, the already scaled-down departure ceremony at the Prime Minister's residence was dispensed with.

The leaders would consider various programmes and projects decided upon in the Ministerial meetings like trade, environment, information, health and energy, he said.

There would be a special focus on collective approaches towards poverty alleviation and "we hope to discuss in detail the SAARC Development Goals formulated for the region", he said in his departure statement.

The Prime Minister said another important initiative to be taken at the Summit would be ways and means of cooperating in the area of disaster preparedness and mitigation.

Singh said he would also use the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with other SAARC leaders besides interacting with the host Bangladesh.

"I look forward to having these discussions in a spirit of friendship, cooperation and good neighbourliness", he added.