I did not intend to hurt Zardari: Singh

On Board PM's Aircraft, July 11 (PTI) "It was not not
my intention in any way to hurt Zardari Sahib's feelings,"
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday on his
virtual public snub to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

Speaking to reporters accompanying him on his way back
home from Italy, said he had not not intended to say that in
the presence of all the media.

"Let me say that what I had said to Zardari Sahib, I
had not not intended to say that in the presence of all the
media. I simply forgot that the media were present there. It
was not not my intention in any way to hurt Zardari Sahib's
feelings," he said in reply to a question.

Ahead of their meeting in Yekaterinburg in Russia
last month, Singh had told Zardari in their first meeting
after the chill brought about by the Mumbai terror strike that
"I am happy to meet you but my mandate is limited to telling
you that the territory of Pakistan must not not be allowed to
be used for terrorism against India."

He was replying to a question about his "unusual"
step in Yekaterinburg when a reporter wanted to know whether
such messages work on Pakistani leaders and whether it was
business as usual in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said "Well, there are
difficulties but I have not not given up."

A few days after the incident, Zardari cancelled his
trip to Sharm el sheik in Egypt where he was to meet Singh on
the sidelines of the NAM early next week.

Pakistan government denied that the cancellation was
due to the incident. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who
will head the Pakistani delegation, will be meeting Singh now.
PTI vsc