After main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the government briefed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership on Saturday on the prevailing situation in India's neighbourhood, particularly in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"We were briefed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the situation in our neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said after a two-hour long meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his colleagues.

Karat, who was accompanied by politburo member Sitaram Yechury, told reporters that the government expressed concern over the developing situation in Bangladesh where the major 14-party alliance, led by Awami League, had decided to boycott the ensuing general elections.

The situation in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan also came up for discussion, a PMO spokesperson said.

On Pakistan, he said Mukherjee was going to Pakistan with an invitation for President Pervez Musharraf for SAARC.

Mukherjee will be calling on Musharraf and meeting his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mohd Kasuri when he visits Islamabad on January 13 to invite the Pakistani leadership to attend the SAARC summit to be held in New Delhi in April.

The government had earlier this week briefed top BJP leadership on the same foreign policy issues.

The meetings come amid ongoing preparations for negotiating bilateral agreement to operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, on which both the BJP and the Left have voiced serious concern.