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The seven-nation SAARC summit of South Asian countries will end in Kathmandu later today. A condemnation of terrorism will form the focus of the joint declaration to be issued at the end of the meet.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have overshadowed the summit, which began a day late yesterday. The summit is also likely to end with a greater push for achieving a regional economic union.

Leaders have apparently agreed to finalise the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) treaty by the end of this year.

They also concurred to launch the fourth round of South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA).

'No Indo-Pak issues at informal meet'

A brief interaction between the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar at informal consultations among the summit leaders led to wild speculation about a bilateral meeting between the two. Western media and Pakistani journalists maintained that it was a detailed meeting where bilateral issues could have come up.

The Indian side dismissed the talk of any bilateral issues having come up during the meeting in the hotel where the SAARC summit leaders were on a scaled down retreat instead of the retreat at Nagarcot.

"There was no separate substantive discussion at all," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao told reporters.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who decided not to attend the informal consultations, deputised Singh on his behalf.