Musharraf heads for ECO summit

The military leader of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf , has left for Iran to attend a summit of the ten-nation Economic Cooperation Organisation ECO.

He said in a statement that he hoped the summit , which opens tomorrow, will be remembered as an important landmark in the history of the organisation.

The two-day meeting will discuss proposals for the expansion of trade and communications among its member-states.

A statement from the Foreign Office in Islamabad said the total of intra-regional trade, at present amounting to four-point-five billion dollars, was a small fraction of the global exports of the ECO countries.

It said the potential for an increase in commercial and economic interaction among ECO countries is considerable. General Musharraf will leave Iran for a two-day visit to Oman on Sunday, where he will hold talks with Sultan Qaboos. The ECO membership comprises Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

Afghanistan is also a member, but most ECO states recognise the former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was ousted from Kabul by the Taleban in 1996.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service