WARMING UP: Foreign Ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation nations at the Ministerial Conference of the 14th SAARC Summit in New Delhi on Monday. From left, Bhutan's Lyonpo Ugyen Tsherin, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri of Pakistan, Pranab Mukherjee, and Nepal's Sahana Pradhan. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

NEW DELHI: India has proposed that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations adopt a legal assistance treaty to fight terror effectively, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told presspersons here on Monday after a meeting of the grouping's Council of (Foreign) Ministers.

Asked if India wanted an extradition clause in the treaty, he said a draft would be given to other SAARC nations.

`Exclusive domain'

Mr. Menon said the Foreign Ministers decided that the SAARC development fund would be the "exclusive domain" of the member-States and it would become operational with the existing $300 million.

They agreed to mobilise funds from "outside" too to be added to the corpus.

However, the Ministers stressed that the fund would be administered as per the SAARC Charter.

The fund would be operationalised by the time the Council of Ministers meets in November.

The Foreign Ministers also discussed the issue of taking the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement to a "new level" or start talks on an agreement on services.

Mr. Menon said Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday and discussed Siachen and Sir Creek.

On Siachen, both looked forward to a meeting of the Defence Secretaries.

On Sir Creek, the two sides now had a "common map" of the area, he said, adding that Kashmir did not figure in the talks.

Patrolling issue

Referring to the meeting between Mr. Mukherjee and his Sri Lanka counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama, Mr. Menon said India was yet to decide on Colombo's proposal of "coordinated patrolling" of the Palk Strait.

Mr. Mukherjee reiterated that India favoured a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the ethnic question within the framework of a united nation.

He also raised the issue of firing on Indian fishermen.

Asked whether Bangladesh had presented to India a list of wanted terrorists, Mr. Menon said: "We will discuss all these issues."

On Saturday, there was a meeting between Mr. Mukherjee and Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Adviser Ifthekar Ahmed Chowdhury.

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