ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will embark on a three-nation South Asia tour on Nov 1 during which he will visit Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

This will be his first visit to these countries as prime minister.

The four-day tour will be part of his planned visits to six capitals of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) member states as the outgoing chairman of the regional body.

On the second leg of his tour in the third week of November Mr Aziz will visit Sri Lanka, Maldives and India.

He will first visit Nepal, then Bhutan on Nov 2 and from there he will proceed to Bangladesh on Nov 3.

It is a Saarc tradition that its outgoing chairperson visits all member states of the association before handing over the chair to another country.

Bangladesh will assume the chairmanship of Saarc next year at the 13th Summit to be held in Dhaka in January.-Q.A.

Our Dhaka correspondent adds: Bangladesh will focus on ways to strengthen economic relations among SAARC countries during talks between the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Pakistan in Dhaka.

Mr Aziz is expected to apprise his Bangladesh counterpart Khaleda Zia about the progress that the seven-nation regional bloc has made under Pakistan's stewardship.

The official talks at the prime minister's office will focus also on Dhaka-Islamabad ties, foreign minister of Bangladesh Morshed Khan told journalists at his office on Sunday evening.