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No handshake, eye contact

The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, leaves the 16-nation Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Almaty on Tuesday, after posing for a group picture. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, is at the background. — AP

ALMATY JUNE 4. There was no repeat of the dramatic Kathmandu handshake by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at the 16-nation Asian security summit, where the two leaders studiously avoided each other.

Wearing a dark blue "bandh gala" suit, Mr. Vajpayee shook hands with several leaders attending the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) here but avoided Gen. Musharraf.

The Pakistan President, dressed in a black "sherwani", also did not make any move to reach out to Mr. Vajpayee as he did at the Kathmandu SAARC summit in January.

The Kazakh state TV, Khabar, telecast live images of Mr. Vajpayee walking with some other leaders, a few steps behind Gen. Musharraf.

At the group photograph venue, the two leaders walked to their respective positions, avoiding any eye or body contact.

Gen. Musharraf smiled and turned his head towards Mr. Vajpayee, who kept looking straight ahead.

In the waiting lounge outside the hall, the TV showed Mr. Vajpayee chatting with the Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, while Gen. Musharraf stood next to the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, Islamabad's long-time ally.

The two leaders seemed to have worked out to minute details on avoiding any interaction as they left the lounge for a lunch hosted by Mr. Nazarbyev.

Earlier, renewing his offer for resumption of dialogue in his speech , Gen. Musharraf did look at Mr. Vajpayee. — PTI

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