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The first anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the U.S. -led forces, and the subsequent defeat and rout of the Taliban militia will no doubt be marked in the Afghan capital today with celebrations.

The declaration of the 11th Saarc summit that concluded here yesterday including a key phrase on "informal consultations" that could open the door to bilateral issues being discussed.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf cut through the speculation on talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers yesterday like a knife through butter when he announced with characteristic frankness at a press conference yesterday that "a series of meetings have been held".

The leaders of India and Pakistan were filmed by a private television channel exchanging a 'wish list' of demands yesterday on the last day of the South Asian summit in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, scotching speculation of an early breakthrough in the standoff.

India yesterday stepped up the rhetoric against Pakistan by questioning the nuclear rival's stand that it would only extend "moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri militants", firmly turning up the heat in chilly Kathmandu, ahead of formal talks at the seven-nation South Asian summit which opens today.

India and Pakistan failed to find any common ground in the growing war of words yesterday that seems destined to set this South Asian meet apart from the rest.

The start of a South Asian regional summit in Nepal was delayed by a day after bad weather yesterday held up the arrival of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf from the Chinese capital Beijing.

India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh laid down the parameters for talks with Pakistan yesterday, hours after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's dramatic handshake with Indian prime minister electrified the gathering at the inaugural session of the 11th South Asian summit here.

The inaugural session of the 11th South Asian meet that opened at the Birendra International Convention Centre yesterday was marred by the deep suspicions that mark Indo-Pakistan relations with the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee grudgingly accepting the hand of friendship proferred by the Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, India's Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and one of the Bharatiya Janata Party's rising stars, called yesterday for "Pakistan to end its backing for cross-border terrorism" as a pre-condition for talks between the two nuclear neighbours.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan, while admitting yesterday that atrocities had been committed against the minorities in his country, strongly denied charges that his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government was involved in any way in the massacre that led to an exodus of thousands of minorities in the wake of his party's overwhelming victory in elections held last year.

Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai arrived in the UAE yesterday in what many see as a fence-mending mission, ahead of a conference hosted by Abu Dhabi-based think tank Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies, where he is to deliver the keynote address today.