Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad flew to New Delhi yesterday to invite Indian Prime Minister IK Gujral to the planned three-nation summit in Dhaka in the third week of November, reports UNB.

Azad proceeded to the Indian capital from New York after attending the current session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that began on September 16, according to reports received in Dhaka.

The foreign minister will hand over a formal invitation letter from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the Indian Premier on October 12. an official handout said in Dhaka yesterday.

From New Delhi the FM will go to Islamabad to deliver another invitation letter from Hasina to her Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif on October 14. •

The three prime ministers are expected to hold a meeting in Dhaka on November 23. But the date for the Dhaka initiated summit is yet to be officially announced.

The tripartite summit is likely to work out a mechanism to bolster economic cooperation and trade among the three countries of the sub-continent.

It will be followed by a grand conference of leading businessmen and industrialists from the three SAARC countries.

Observers believe that the summit may help ease tension in the region caused predominantly by the Kashmir issue over which India and Pakistan have fought two wars.

During his stay in India. Azad will visit the mazar of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmir Sharif, the handout said.