NEW YORK, July 13: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has accepted an invitation by a US Congressman to visit Washington in February to attend a prayer breakfast meeting, a favourite winter routine of the assassinated leader of Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Gilani gave the assurance to Tom Wamp earlier this month when he met him in Islamabad, said a report in Chattanooga Times, a Tennesse newspaper, on Saturday.

“When I told Mr Gilani in our meeting of our relationship with Benazir Bhutto through the breakfast, I told him we would love to have him attend, and immediately, he said he’d accept my invitation,” Mr Wamp said.

“At 168 million people, Pakistan is the linchpin in the Middle East, and it’s so important that we maintain good relations,” Wamp said.—Correspondent