ISLAMABAD, July 21: Pakistan has welcomed the reported decision of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to attend the next summit in Islamabad of the heads of state and government of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation in early January.

In reply to questions at his regular media briefing here on Monday, foreign office spokesman Masud Khan said while Pakistan welcomed press reports from New Delhi about Mr Vajpayee’s decision to attend the Islamabad Saarc summit, there had been no official confirmation of this so far from the Indian government.

The Indian prime minister had reportedly spoken about his intended Islamabad visit to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam secretary- general Maulana Fazlur Rehman during a meeting on Sunday.

Mr Khan said there had also been as yet no official communication from New Delhi about an Indian proposal for a pre-summit meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two governments. However, the spokesman said, the Indian prime minister had “taken the right decision” and added: “We welcome it”.

Asked for reaction to last week’s move in the US House of Representatives to make the US aid package to Pakistan for 2003-05 conditional on President George Bush’s certification that Islamabad had prohibited cross-border infiltration, eliminated all training camps for militants and was adhering to nuclear non-proliferation, the spokesman said Pakistan would undertake a vigorous diplomatic effort to abort the move.

In reply to questions about the possibility of sending Pakistani forces to Iraq, the spokesman categorically said that no such decision had been taken so far. He pointed out that Pakistan had not yet acceded to the US request for troops.

“We would like to send troops if we have the legitimate cover of the United Nations, the OIC, the GCC or any other mechanism, or if we are invited by the Iraqis to go there, or Iraqi leaders with popular support ... We would like to go there because our primary objective is to go there and help the people of Iraq...”.

“Arms purchases by India all over the world,” the spokesman said replying to another question, “are a source of deep concern to us and we hope India will not focus on aggressive defence spending but will cooperate with Pakistan and other member countries of South Asia to divert precious resources from defence spending to social development in the region”.

The spokesman regretted that India had been trying to block American aid to Pakistan and said they looked and sounded worried over the recent $3 billion committed during President Pervez Musharraf’s recent Washington visit.

However, he did not think that such Indian attempts would adversely affect current Pakistan-India moves for normalization of relations as there had been several positive developments such as appointment of high commissioners, restoration of the Lahore- Delhi bus service and offers to hold technical-level talks for resumption of air links and overflights.

Mr Khan expressed the hope that India would harmonize its policy and posture towards Pakistan as conflicting signals from New Delhi tended to worry Islamabad. He said Pakistan remained concerned about the Indo-Israel relationship, particularly its defence dimensions, which could have a negative impact on regional peace and security.

Explaining the government’s view on the JUI leader’s Indian visit, the spokesman said Maulana Fazl had not gone there as a government envoy although he had been officially briefed as was customary in such non-official visits between Pakistan and India about the current context in relations between the two nations.

In reply to questions on the Maulana’s reported observations about the Line of Control, the Shimla Agreement and some other issues raising a public controversy, Mr Khan said the JUI leader had already complained that his remarks were reported out of context and added that it would be better to address these questions to the JUI leader himself.