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Indian PM visits Saudi Arabia

02 March 2010 00:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. India and Saudi Arabia have signed an extradition treaty following talks on improving ties between the two during the Indian prime minister’s visit to Riyadh, APA reports quoting Al Jazeera.
Manmohan Singh is the first Indian prime minister to visit the kingdom since 1982.
Singh held talks with King Abdullah on Monday on the need to strengthen their energy partnership, Indian officials said.
Singh also discussed regional security in the Middle East, telling Saudi officials that an independent Palestinian state is key to stability in the region, the officials added.
’Extra mile’
Singh told Saudi Arabia’s quasi-parliament, the Shura Council. that New Delhi will go the "extra mile" to improve relations with neighbour Pakistan.
"If Pakistan co-operates with India, there is no problem that we cannot solve and we can walk the extra mile to open a new chapter in relations between our two countries," Singh said.
New Delhi broke off talks with Islamabad following the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, in which armed men launched assaults in India’s financial capital, killing 166 people.
India accuses Lashkar-e-Taiba, an armed Pakistani group, of being responsible.
The two countries held talks last Thursday for the first time in more than a year, but they have yet to resume a formal peace process.