For Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it will be a visit to the Pakistani capital after 26 years when he arrives in Islamabad on Saturday to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.

Vajpayee had come to Islamabad as external affairs minister in the Morarji Desai government in 1978, when major steps were initiated to improve people-to-people contacts.

This will also be Vajpayee's third visit to Pakistan, and second as PM, after the historic bus journey to Lahore in 1999.

Vajpayee is the second Indian PM to visit Islamabad after Rajiv Gandhi, who had attended the 1988 SAARC summit.