A seven-nation regional summit scheduled for next month in Dhaka has been postponed following the destruction caused by Sunday's tsunami in South Asia.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has issued a statement, saying the decision was made after a request from Sri Lanka. The summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was to be held from January ninth to the 11th. In addition to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the forum also includes India, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan. The statement says a new date for the summit will be set in consultation with the member countries, but no specific time frame has been fixed. Among this group of countries, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives were the hardest hit by the tsunami disaster. Bangladesh escaped the worst of the disaster.
