Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived home from New Delhi after his second leg of SAARC countries tour to Sri Lanka, Maldives and India, according to a report of the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) here Thursday.

Shaukat Aziz visited these countries as the outgoing chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the report said.

The four-day visit took the prime minister to Sri Lanka, Maldives and India. Earlier in the month he had visited another three members of SAARC, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

This was Shuakat Aziz's first visit to these countries and it is a SAARC tradition that the Chairman makes farewell calls to SAARC capitals before the next summit.

Shaukat Aziz held wide ranging talks with the leaders of Maldives, Sri Lanka and India covering matters of regional cooperation and on ways and means to promote existing bilateral ties, the report of APP said.

His visit to India was very significant in the backdrop of Confidence Building Measures, and the two countries are taking to resolve various bilateral issues including the core issue of Jammuand Kashmir, it said.

On Wednesday the prime minister held a meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh and said the talks were frank, direct and positive.

Pakistan wants to proceed forward with India in all sincerity to resolve outstanding differences including core issue of Kashmir,APP quoted Shaukat Aziz as saying.

On Tuesday, he also held five-hour marathon talks with the Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi.

Source: Xinhua