KATHMANDU, Jan 4: President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee dined together with five other South Asian leaders on Friday at a banquet hosted by the king of Nepal.

The venue where the South Asian leaders met for the first event of the summit in Kathmandu has a macabre recent past — it was the site of the massacre of 10 members of the royal family.

The palace was hosting guests for the first time since a drunken crown prince Dipendra gunned down his family on June 1 after a family row.

The leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries were due to begin a summit on Friday, but the meetings were pushed back one day after President Musharraf arrived late because of weather problems.

Welcoming his guests, King Gyanendra expressed confidence the summit “will deepen friendship, enhance mutual trust and further infuse harmony amongst the nations of South Asia.”

“May Saarc therefore once again be imbued with its founding spirit and work with added zeal and urgency to uplift the dignity and pride of South Asia,” he said in his toast.—AFP