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ISLAMABAD, April 9 (Reuters) - South Asian nations agreed on Tuesday to a plan to fight poverty in a region where two countries, India and Pakistan, have nuclear weapons but 500 million people live below the poverty line.

But the "action plan" agreed by seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), long hamstrung by tension between India and Pakistan, contained no guarantees it would be put into action.

It urges good governance practices, following sound economic policies, developing human resources, expanding social safety nets, investing in social sectors and expanding intra-regional trade.

The seven members -- the others are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives -- would also ask developed countries to stem the flow of money stolen by corrupt officials, it said.

"Around 500 million people live below poverty line in this region," Pakistan Finance Minister Saukat Aziz told a news conference at the end of a meeting of SAARC finance and planning ministers.

Half of South Asia's 1.3 billion people are illiterate while 10 million suffer from "avoidable disabilities" because of poor health care, he said.

India's representative at the meeting was Krishnan Chander Pant, deputy chairman of India's planning commission and the Indian government's pointman on peace talks with a range of groups in disputed Kashmir.

But India and Pakistan, locked in a tense military standoff with more than one million troops massed on their borders, did not hold bilateral talks.

"We held informal talks at the sidelines, but no bilateral issue was discussed," Aziz told Reuters.

Pakistan, with a population of 140 million and an annual per capita income of $412, allocated 132 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) for defence in its budget for fiscal 2001-02 (July/June).

Arch rival India increased defence expenditure for fiscal 2002/03 to 650 billion rupees ($11 billion), up nearly 15 per cent from last year's 570 billion rupees.

The increase was made to buy powerful weapons such as airborne surveillance systems, fighter aircraft, submarines and a second aircraft carrier. 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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