However, there appears to be a deadlock already over the admission of Afghanistan into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, with India and Bangladesh presenting contradictory views on the issue. While India and Pakistan strongly pleaded Afghanistan's case at the meetings of the programming and standing committees, Dhaka was not in favour of full membership to Afghanistan and instead supported observer status to it.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who arrived in Dhaka on Friday for the meet, is expected to hold parleys his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz. The meeting assumes significance as it is taking place less than a fortnight after Delhi serial bomb blasts. Both terrorism and Kashmir are among the eight issues being discussed under Composite Dialogue Process whose progress will be reviewed by Singh and Aziz.

Meanwhile, the additional protocol to SAARC's Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism has come into force with all the seven countries of the grouping ratifying it to wage a joint war against the scourge of terrorism. With the aim of having zero tolerance to terrorism in all forms and manifestations, SAARC foreign ministers felt that the additional protocol would help the member countries to meet the challenge of terrorism.

A Bangladeshi soldier stands guard near the venue of the 13th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit on November 11, 2005, as part of tightened security measures ahead of the summit.

Photograph: FINDLAY KEMBER/AFP/Getty Images

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