Pakistan on Saturday used to the diplomatic channel to formally invite Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the January SAARC summit.

The invitation from Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was handed over to Indian Deputy High Commissioner T C A Raghavan.

India had earlier said a visit by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri to New Delhi to personally hand over the invitation was not necessary.

Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan's director general (South Asia) handed over the invitation to Raghavan.

The SAARC summit was earlier scheduled to be held in January this year, but was postponed owing to India's reluctance to attend.

Kasuri has already visited Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and handed over personally the invitations for the SAARC summit to the respective leaders and had planned to visit India, Maldives and Bhutan next month.