India's prime minister indicated he may meet Pakistan's president when he attends a South Asian summit in Islamabad in January, a newspaper reported Friday. It would be their first formal meeting in more than two years.

India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was asked Thursday night whether he planned to meet with Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and he replied, "I will be meeting everyone," The Indian Express reported.

It was not possible to immediately confirm whether he meant he would meet with Musharraf. Vajpayee routinely answers questions in such vague ways and often later says he was misquoted.

Leaders from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Maldives and Bhutan are scheduled to attend the summit of the South Asian Association of Regional Countries in Islamabad, Jan. 4-6, 2004.

Vajpayee has shunned the Pakistani president at international meetings since a December 2001 attack on India's Parliament that he blames on Pakistan's spy agency and two militant groups based in Pakistan.

Pakistan has condemned the attack and banned the two groups — which have since reformed under different names — but the two nations came close to war last year over the incident, which killed 19 people including five unidentified attackers.

But relations have improved since April with the restoration of ambassadors, the establishment of a bus link and, this week, the first full cease-fire between the nuclear-armed countries in 14 years — bringing a halt to incessant cross-bordering firing.

Vajpayee and Musharraf last held formal talks in June 2001 in Agra, India, but the three-day summit broke down in disagreement over Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but both claim in its entirety.

The two leaders last encountered each other at a South Asian summit in Nepal in January 2002, just two weeks after the attack on India's parliament. However, they did not speak and have avoided each other at subsequent international meetings.

On Thursday, Vajpayee said he hoped to meet Pakistan's prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, with whom he has spoken on the phone.

He also said he hoped the cease-fire that began at midnight on Tuesday would continue.

Indian soldiers fought a gunbattle with militants about a mile from the border late Thursday and early Friday. At least three militants were killed, but Pakistani troops did not interfere.

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