Visa pact with Pakistan needs some approvals: India

India Thursday said a new liberalised visa regime could not be worked out with Pakistan as some internal approvals were pending there.

"Some internal approvals are pending there... Pakistan wants home ministers of both the countries to sign the pact," Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters. Singh held two-day talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Siddique Akbar in Islamabad May 24-25, but a pact for relaxing the visa regime could not be signed.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters May 25 that the signing of the pact had been postponed. He, however, declined to say when it would be signed.

The agreement involves important issues and should be finalised at the political level, he said. Later, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the decision to invite Malik would be taken at the highest level.

Singh also said the two neighbours had agreed to have an institution where prisoners from both the countries would be kept before their identity was established and they were deported to their native place.