Moscow (PTI): President Asif Ali Zardari will seek full membership for Pakistan of the China-Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), where it currently holds an observer status along with India, Iran and Mongolia.

Mr. Zardari reached the Russian city of Yekaterinburg this morning for the SCO summit on the sidelines of which he is expected to meet his host Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

International - India & World

Pakistan leaders greet Sonia, PM

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani greeted Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the party's election victory, and expressed Pakistan's commitment to resolving all issues with India peacefully "in a just manner."

In separate messages, they said the outcome of the elections was a manifestation of the trust people reposed in their "wise and inspiring leadership."

Barack Obama today holds talks with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington amid deepening American anxiety about the growing Taliban threat in the region.

Richard Holbrooke, the US administration's special representative for the region, told Congress yesterday that America's "most vital national security interests" were at stake in Pakistan.

The US president and national security team will meet the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, separately and then together in what US officials describe as "historic talks".

Gordon Brown received an apparent snub today as he arrived in Pakistan fortalks with President Zardari only to be told that he was not available toappear at a joint press conference afterwards.

The Prime Minister, who landed in Pakistan this afternoon after talks inAfghanistan, told reporters on the plane that he would hold a meeting withPresident Asif Ali Zardari.

But instead of a joint press conference with Mr Zardari in Islamabad, it hasemerged that Mr Brown will appear alongside the relatively junior PakistaniPrime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Mr Zardari was forced to make a climb-down and restore the chief justice after coming under intense pressure earlier this week.

But the threat to his control of the country has not ended. Senior members of his own Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) want him immediately to honour a pledge that he made to hand over key powers.

Mr Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, stated on assuming office that he would transfer the balance of power from the presidency to the prime minister.

It came as Pakistani lawyers and opposition activists yesterday launched a cross-country protest heading for a showdown with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government in the capital, Islamabad, on Monday.