Twice delayed due to the Indian Ocean tsunami and India's decision to pull out of a rescheduled summit in February due to regional security concerns, the meeting was again cast into doubt by the devastating earthquake that shook Kashmir on October 8.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), founded at a summit in Dhaka in 1985, groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

But although it was set up amid high hopes of reducing poverty and fostering amity, peace and stability, critics say two decades of squabbling and mistrust has resulted in it falling short of its potential.

Bangladeshi foreign minister M. Morshed Khan has pledged, however, that the Dhaka summit will strive to achieve the beginning of a new SAARC era.

"Our foremost objective will be to graduate the SAARC activities from setting of objectives to implementation of concrete plans and projects," he said in a statement released ahead of the summit on November 12-13.

"I believe that all the seven SAARC countries realise that now is the time to act," he added.

Critics said they hoped the conference would achieve Dhaka's aim.

"Bangladesh took the initiative in the creation of SAARC. It should try to make the Dhaka Summit a real success," said Mohammad Yunus, chairman of Grameen Bank, the pioneer of the microcredit system which is credited with lifting millions of people out of poverty.

"Regional integration has helped economies of many nations. There is in fact no alternative to it. It is our one and only future. And it is also very essential for raising the living standards of the people in South Asia," he said.

Topics to be discussed at the 13th SAARC summit include strategies for giving fresh impetus to poverty alleviation. The region is home to half the world's poor with 40 percent living on less than a dollar a day, according to the World Bank.

A free trade deal -- seen as crucial to boosting the living standards of the poorest -- could be implemented from January 1, 2006 if a series of final hurdles can be overcome in Dhaka.

"This would be a summit where we hope to prioritise those areas considered vital to achieve the SAARC charter objectives especially to create conditions that would contribute to the improvement in the lives of our teeming millions," added Khan.

Dhaka also hoped the summit would produce results on tackling terrorism and disaster management.

The seven leaders are expected to discuss the setting up of a disaster preparedness centre in New Delhi which would respond to natural disasters across the region.

"Timely initiatives are necessary to enhance our collective capability to deal with these emergencies and to cope with the human and economic dimensions of these disasters," Khan added.

The region has experienced two major disasters in a year. Last December's tsunami claimed more than 47,000 lives in Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives, while the October 8 earthquake killed 73,000 in Pakistan and 1,300 in India.

Disaster prone Bangladesh also regularly experiences devastating cyclones and floods.

Strategies for tackling the menace of terrorism that hangs over the region is also a key Dhaka objective for the summit and has been welcomed by analysts.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he would hold a series of bilateral meetings during the summit and focus on poverty and disaster management in the regional talks.

"There will be a special focus on collective approaches towards poverty alleviation and we hope to discuss in detail the SAARC development goals formulated for the region," Singh said in a statement.

"Another important initiative that will be taken up at the Summit will be ways and means of cooperating in the area of disaster preparedness and mitigation."

The proposals on terrorism, free trade and disaster management showed that Dhaka was committed to dealing with some of the most pressing issues facing member nations, added Mohammad Zamir, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to the European Union.

"These agenda items show that the SAARC leaders are now confronting the right issues that bedevil the livelihood of more than 1.3 billion people," he said.

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