December 28, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will have one-to-one meetings with five leaders of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at the Aiwan-i-Sadr on Jan 5, a day after their joint call on him, informed sources told Dawn on Friday.

The leaders whose meetings with the president are confirmed are Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Nepalese Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

While a formal request for a separate meeting with President Musharraf has not been made by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, sources said there were signals from across the border that the two would have a one-to-one meeting during or after the summit.

The last time Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee met was in January 2002 at the 11th Saarc summit in Kathmandu. However, there has been no contact between them since President Musharraf’s famous handshake with Prime Minister Vajpayee in Kathmandu.

Mr Vajpayee will arrive here on Jan 3 and leave on Jan 6.

All the Saarc leaders will be making a joint call on Gen Musharraf at the Aiwan-i-Sadr before the state banquet hosted by him in their honour on the opening day of the summit.