Foreign ministers of the Saarc countries yesterday began informal consultations ahead of the two-day summit of the South Asian leaders on November 12-13.

They will sit today at the formal meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel with Bangladesh Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan in the chair.

The participating foreign ministers are: Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk of Bhutan, Dr Ahmed Shaheed of the Maldives, Ramesh Nath Pandey of Nepal, Khurshid M Kasuri of Pakistan, Anura Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and State Minister for External Affairs of India E Ahmed.

The Council of Ministers at today's meeting will discuss matters related to regional cooperation on poverty alleviation, enforcement of Safta as per schedule, economic integration of South Asia, and the ratification of Additional Protocol to the Saarc Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism,

The meeting will review the progress of Saarc Social Charter, Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme, the expansion of visa categories from present 23, entry of new members in Saarc, granting of observer and dialogue partner status to the interested countries.

The foreign ministers will discuss the Saarc secretary general's periodic analytical reports with comments and recommendations of the standing committee, the report of the 31st session of the standing committee and the reports of various ministerial meetings.

They will also review the progress on the ratification and implementation of Saarc conventions and instruments, the conferment of the Saarc Youth Award 2003 and consideration of evolving a vision for the third decade of Saarc.

The Council of Ministers will finalise the draft of the provisional agenda for the 13th summit of heads of state and government and the draft of the Dhaka Declaration.

It will also consider the venue and dates for the 27th session of the Council of Ministers as well as the 14th Saarc Summit

Earlier, the Saarc foreign ministers called on the Bangladesh foreign minister separately at Sheraton Hotel and discussed the Saarc issues, bilateral cooperation as well as regional and international issues of common concern.