NEW DELHI, Dec 6: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is hoping to visit Pakistan early next year, India's envoy to Islamabad said on Monday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wishes to come to Pakistan early next year," Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, Shiv Shankar Menon, told the news agency. Mr Singh had received an invitation from the government of Pakistan, the envoy was quoted as saying.

The last Indian prime minister to visit Pakistan was Atal Behari Vajpayee in February 1999. Besides Singh, other Indian leaders who have reportedly received invitations to visit Pakistan are the chief of India's ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi and leader of the opposition, Hindu nationalist leader Lal Krishna Advani. -AFP