KATHMANDU, Dec 26: Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa of Nepal will attend the upcoming Saarc summit in Islamabad, the government said on Friday.

Mr Thapa will leave on Jan 2 for the Jan 4-6 summit where he will hand over the chairmanship of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, foreign ministry spokesman Madan Kumar Bhattarai said.

Mr Thapa said in a statement that he was “very shocked” at the attempt on President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s life.

“Nepal strongly condemns such deplorable terrorism attacks,” Mr Thapa said.—AFP