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Musharraf's flight delayed, SAARC inauguration postponed to Saturday

The inauguration of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit has been postponed to Saturday after the flight of Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf was held up in China due to bad weather.

Pakistani officials informed mediapersons that President Musharraf, who was supposed to leave for Kathmandu from Beijing after meeting Chinese leaders, could not do so because of bad weather.

The planned retreat to Nagarkot by the heads of state on Saturday has now been cancelled and the possibility of a separate meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee and the Pakistani president seems even more remote.

Earlier, President Musharraf had declined to fly over India even after being given special permission to do so preferring instead to fly via China.

According to the original plan, the summit was to have been inaugurated at 1400 hours (local time).

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