No aides in the room when Manmohan and Zardari talk

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,23,son of Pakistani president,will be accompanying him as well.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will meet on Sunday before their lunch without customary note-takers in the room,sources said here today. This was done at New Delhis insistence and Islamabad is learnt to have readily agreed to the Prime Ministers suggestion. This opens up the possibility for a more candid conversation,sources said. More so when there is no agenda,no outcome documents to be signed.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,23,son of Asif Zardari,will be accompanying him as well. This has got the Prime Ministers Office to explore the option of inviting Rahul Gandhi for the lunch that Singh will host for Zardari.

Bilawals inclusion in the delegation is being seen here as a signal that Zardari wants his son,being groomed as the heir apparent in the party,to be introduced to the Indian leadership. Bilawal was named chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party after the assassination of his mother Benazir Bhutto.

Zardaris 40-member delegation will include Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal will be part of the lunch,since he is the minister-in-waiting for Zardari. After lunch,Zardari and his team will fly in his plane to Jaipur and from there on IAF choppers to the shrine at Ajmer Sharif. The delegation will return to Islamabad on Sunday evening from Jaipur.