Thaindian News

On Board Air India One, Nov 12 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said he has accepted his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani’s invitation to visit Pakistan, but stressed that he will go when Islamabad takes “solid” steps against the 26/11 Mumbai terror accused.

“Prime Minister Gilani has invited me to visit Pakistan everytime I have met him,” Manmohan Singh told reporters on board his special flight while returning from the Maldives where he attended the SAARC summit and also held wide-ranging talks with Gilani.

“The right moment for my going to Pakistan would be when Pakistan will solid steps against the Mumbai terror attack accused in that country.

“I would be happy to visit Pakistan but I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he said.

When Manmohan Singh met Gilani in the Maldives, the Pakistan leader invited him to visit his country and reinforced this with an emotional appeal, requesting him to visit his birthplace in an area which is now in that country.

“Pakistan’s prime minister was very keen that the Indian prime minister should visit Pakistan,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here.

Manmohan Singh was born in Gah in undivided India, a village which is now located in Pakistan’s Punjab priovince.

If Manmohan Singh does visit Pakistan, it will be the first prime ministerial visit from India to that country since 2004 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee went there for the SAARC summit and held bilateral talks that led to the resumption of the dialogue process between the two countries.