Addu City (Maldives), Nov. 10 : Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani have began a meeting here this morning to give a push to normalising bilateral relations marked by a shrinking trust deficit.

Dr Singh and Gilani are meeting for the third time in the last 18 months.

Thursday''s meeting on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC Summit comes a week after Pakistan announced a path-breaking decision to confer Most Fovoured Nation (MFN) status on India.

Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir had said that Gilani was looking forward to his meeting with Dr. Singh.

"I think the key thing here is to be able to look ahead, sustain the process of engagement in a meaningful manner. ..... we are already seeing that there are good signs in some areas. So, enormous opportunities for the two leaders to survey the horizon," he added.

Relations between both Asian neighbours hit rock bottom after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Around 166 people were killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks by militants from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an extremist outfit.

The 17th SAARC Summit is taking place in Addu City, in the southern atolls of the Maldives. . (ANI)