"Our economy is not similar to (those of) India or Thailand ...We will seek special concession packages for LDCs (least developed countries) as we've got under Safta," Foreign Minister Morshed Khan told journalists prior to his departure for Bangkok to attend the BIMST-EC foreign ministers' meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

A meeting of the BIMST-EC commerce ministers begins today.

Under Safta, signed at Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit held in Islamabad last January, four LDCs -- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives -- will get special tariff concessions from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka when the accord comes into effect in January, 2006.

"As LDCs, we want equitable share in the vast market of the BIMST-EC," Khan said while talking to reporters at Zia International Airport.

About signing of the draft FTA, he said the proposed deal hasn't been finalised yet and also he wasn't sure if it would be signed at the BIMST-EC foreign ministers' meeting tomorrow.

Sri Lanka proposed the free trade pact between the five nations a year ago at the group's first ministerial meeting in Colombo.

"If it (FTA) could not be signed at this meeting, it would hopefully be signed within this year," Khan said.

He said the plan was to get the deal signed keeping in view the BIMST-EC summit scheduled for February 9. But the summit has been postponed due to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's inability to attend on account of India's upcoming general election.

The foreign minister said a new date for the summit would be fixed within this year so that all heads of government of the member states could attend.

The BIMST-EC states will work on resolving the last remaining "sticking points" before inking the deal which will cut tariffs as well as forge cooperation in key areas.

Khan said the BIMST-EC commerce ministers would begin deliberation on the FTA today in Thailand's resort town of Phuket. The outcome of the meeting will be referred to the foreign ministers' meeting tomorrow.

Apart from the FTA, other issues relating to communications, infrastructure, tourism and investment within the BIMST-EC area would also be discussed.

"The six areas of cooperation include tourism, transport and communication, trade, fisheries and energy. They also want to adopt a common stand against fighting terrorism," an Indian official in New Delhi said this week.

Thai commerce ministry official Chana Kunaratanadilok said the framework plans to reduce tariffs between the five founding members to zero on a wide range of items yet to be announced.

Nepal and Bhutan, which joined the grouping last month, are not yet included in the deal but are expected to join later.

"After the signing ceremony the members will begin the first negotiations in July and the talks are expected to continue for a year and a half. Therefore free trade can be implemented by late 2005," Chana told the AFP.

Chana said BIMST-EC's more developed members, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, will pledge to cut tariffs to zero by 2012 while the two less-developed countries, Bangladesh and Myanmar, have been given an additional five years.

Thai economist Sompop Manarangsan said that in the short-term the free trade deal would not have major benefits for BIMST-EC nations as they mostly export similar agricultural and labour-intensive manufactured products.

However, he said it will lead to greater cooperation in the service sector including the vital regional tourism industry, and in the longer-term it is an extremely strategic agreement, particularly for India.

"We can see deregulation in India is quite dynamic now. They have realised they cannot keep their economy closed ... so they are using Southeast Asia as a springboard for Northeast Asia and then eventually China," he told the AFP.

"Even though China and India have a long border, it is a thinly populated and impoverished area so the economic potential of their frontier area is marginal."

BIMSTEC was initiated five years ago by Thailand as part of its "look West" policy.

It originally covered six areas of cooperation including trade and investment, technology, energy, transportation, tourism and fisheries, but the economic cooperation pact was later widened to a fully fledged free trade area.