India has said Vajpayee may meet Pakistani leaders but will not hold substantive bilateral talks with them on the sidelines of the January 4-6 summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).

"The basic question is whether Pakistan is prepared to give up its attitude of enmity towards India. If yes, a good beginning can be made to improve our ties from the Saarc summit," Vajpayee told the Hindi-language Dainik Jagran newspaper.

"Pakistan's conduct in the Saarc summit will show us whether it really wants better relations with India. We will only know in Islamabad whether there is any basic change in Pakistan's attitude," he said.

The Saarc summit in Islamabad was due in January 2003 but postponed after India delayed confirmation of Vajpayee's attendance amid high tension between the rival neighbours.

India and Pakistan have moved since April to repair ties and on November 26 entered a border truce in Kashmir, the Himalayan province divided between the two countries and claimed in full by both.

Meanwhile, India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party yesterday used Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's 79th birthday to kick off its campaign for national elections due next year.

Hundreds of BJP supporters, undaunted by the winter chill, gathered outside Vajpayee's residence early Thursday as Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and other senior colleagues entered with bouquets.

"He is the leader of the BJP party and will be the country's next prime minister so we are starting this election campaign on his birthday," BJP party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.