NEW DELHI, Feb 21: Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani has said he will be happy to visit Pakistan after the polls in his country due in April-May, Indian media reported.

Mr Advani told newsmen he would be happy to visit Pakistan if "there is an official invitation," newspapers quoted him as saying.

But he said he would have to watch the forthcoming Pakistan-India cricket series on television because he was preoccupied with the polls. "I am very excited about the cricket matches, but I cannot go to Pakistan to watch them because of ensuing parliament polls. I will watch them on the TV," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Advani recalled that his last visit to Pakistan was in 1978 when Islamabad invited him to Karachi to watch a Pakistan-India cricket match.

He recalled that during the visit he had expressed a wish to visit his school and see his home in Karachi and how officials had gone to great lengths to find some of his schoolteachers.-APP