SAARC FOREIGN SECRETARIES MEETING BEGINS

ISLAMABAD : Foreign secretaries of seven Saarc countries, including India ,
on Wednesday began deliberations to finalise a broad agenda for the weekend
regional grouping summit that is expected to focus on a framework for South
Asian Free Trade Area Treaty and ways of combating terrorism.

Foreign Secretary Shashank, the senior most Indian official to visit
Pakistan since the Kargil conflict in 1999, is attending the two-day
Standing Committee meeting presided over by Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz
Khokhar.

They would try to work out agreements and convention on suppressing
terrorism, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance, trafficking of women
and children.

Their recommendations would be taken up at the two-day ministerial-level
meeting beginning on January two, ahead of the three-day summit beginning
January four.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be arriving on January three, a
day before the summit.

Other issues being discussed by the foreign secretaries included a
framework for Safta and implementation of a comprehensive report on poverty
alleviation. Saarc countries have already exchanged lists of tariff
preferences during several round of talks held under Sapta.

Saarc countries were now looking forward to take up more ambitious
undertakings like Safta to pave the way for free trade process in the
sub-continent.