Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee also raised the issue with his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohit Bogallagama here on Thursday.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said the two sides decided that concrete steps should be taken to deal with this humanitarian problem.

The Prime Minister raised the issue in the wake of pressure from parties in Tamil Nadu, particularly the ruling DMK. Menon said the Prime Minister conveyed to Rajapakse his deep conviction that the destinies of the two countries, as also their prosperity are inter-linked. The two leaders also discussed deepening the economic cooperation between the two countries and widening the scope of the bilateral free trade agreement, now confined to trade and goods, to include services also.

About the SAARC convention on terrorism, the groundwork for which has been done by the Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries and which is expected to be approved by the heads of the seven nations, Menon said such a convention was necessary to ensure peace and development in the region.

Asked about specific cases, Menon said the request for the extradition of (LTTE leader) Prabhakaran (to stand trial in the Rajiv Gandhi case) is pending with the Sri Lankan Government. Likewise, specific cases had been dealt with bilaterally with Pakistan. Besides, the two countries had a joint mechanism for fighting terrorism.

He said the summit was expected to come out with a declaration on food security, an issue which affected all countries of the region, countries which had the potential not only to feed themselves but also feed others.

Besides seven observers, including the US and China, requests for inclusion as observers had come from Myanmar and Australia and guidelines on this would be evolved. A charter on SAARC development fund would also be signed.

As for the proposed convention on terrorism, he said it would be a mutual legal assistance treaty on criminal matters. Also under consideration was establishment of a SAARC regional standards organisation to produce goods which could be sold in the entire region. Menon said Mukherjee had  meetings with his counterparts in Bangladesh and Nepal. At his meeting with the Bangladesh foreign affairs adviser, the two discussed duty free access to goods and cooperation in the international fora. The Bangladesh leader also briefed Mukherjee about the internal situation and plans to hold elections in December.