Eight South Asian nations Thursday agreed on introducing terrorism as one of the subjects in an agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters among the countries, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said, according to dpa. The foreign ministers or their representatives who met during the ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Co- operation (SAARC) agreed on the text of the agreement for final approval by the countries' heads of state over the weekend. The agreement will provide for cooperation between the countries by exchanging information, legal documents, making detained persons available for investigations and taking measures to freeze funds used for terrorism, Bogollagama said. However the agreement will not provide for extradition between two countries. Foreign ministers are to have bilateral talks on Friday as the heads of state arrive in the country for the summit. One of the important bilateral discussions between the heads of state would be the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gillani scheduled to take place on Saturday. On Thursday Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Pakistan's Shah Mehmood Qureshi met for bilateral talks. Details of the talks were not immediately available to the media. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, Bangladesh Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed, Maldives President Abdul Gayoom and Nepalese caretaker Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala have confirmed their participation as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa hosts the summit. Colombo has been placed under tight security cover for the summit with 20,000 policemen and security personnel on duty.
