There is consensus among the Saarc member states to make Safta operational from January 2006, Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan said here on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, he said the sub-committee working on technical issues has been asked to meet early next month to resolve the three main issues, ie (a) Rules of Origin; (b) compensation for non-least developed countries and less developed countries; and (c) finalisation of sensitive list.
"We hope that the Safta agreement signed in January 2004 at Islamabad will be ratified and notified on time," Riaz said.
Further, he reiterated that Pakistan had supported the request of Afghanistan for membership of Saarc and to give China either observer status or dialogue partner status, on merit.
However, he cautioned that there was a view that rules and guidelines needed to be laid down in the Saarc Charter for new membership as well as observers/dialogue partners. But "Pakistan feels if there is a consensus among the seven members, then these amendments can also be made afterwards".
Responding to a question about the Delhi blasts, he said no new evidence "has been provided to us" by India and "we have condemned this act of terror and expressed our sorrow at the loss of life".
AGENCIES ADD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh would review bilateral relations and the ongoing peace process between the South Asian countries during their meeting on Saturday on the margins of the 13th Saarc summit.
"The peace process and particularly the issue of Kashmir are expected to come up for discussion (during the meeting)," foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told reporters here.
Asked if there would be any new proposals on the question of Kashmir during the meeting, the foreign secretary said the main purpose of the meeting was to review bilateral relations but added, in their exchange (of views) there are always possibilities.
To a question, he said an invitation had already been extended to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan and the invitation was reiterated at the meeting between President General Pervez Musharraf and the Indian Premier.
He hoped that the Indian Prime Minster would be able to undertake visit to Pakistan as soon as possible.
Seven South Asian countries foreign ministers met on Friday ahead of a weekend summit in the Bangladesh capital to push a free trade agreement and a possible "economic union", officials said.
The leaders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were to meet for the 13th South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) summit in Dhaka on Saturday and Sunday.
The Safta deal would create the world''s biggest free trade area and promote the group''s founding objective of poverty alleviation in a region that is home to 1.4 billion people, including 60 percent of the world''s poor.
The meeting of foreign ministers also discussed setting up of a new economic body to take regional integration beyond Safta, an Indian official present at the discussions told AFP.
"The ministers have made an ambitious recommendation - the setting up of a high economic council comprising ministers of planning and finance and their senior officials," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The council would aim to push regional integration forward to include "trade in services, enhanced investment and harmonising of customs union and, beyond that, a South Asian Economic Union," said the official.
India''s junior foreign minister E. Ahamed said late on Thursday that the delegations had agreed to implement Safta on time and would work to resolve all outstanding issues by the end of November.
"There will be a clear message from Saarc leaders that any pending issues must be resolved by the end of November by the committee of experts," he said.
The committee is due to meet in Kathmandu in late November.
A Bangladeshi official said earlier that ending the deadlock would require a "meeting of minds at the highest level," but other ministers said they were confident of an on-time implementation.
"Though there are some outstanding issues like rules of origin, the Safta can be launched in due time," Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri told reporters.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike said the talks had been delayed by the postponement of the summit due to last year''s Asian tsunami, which battered his country, the Maldives and India.
But he said the outstanding issues could be resolved and added, "we still hope to launch the system by January or early next year."
Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan has said he hopes the Dhaka summit will mark a new chapter in Saarc''s history and see it begin to deliver results for the people of South Asia.