The experts discussed the crucial negative listing of products, rules of origin (ROO), revenue compensation mechanism and technical assistance for the least developed countries (LDCs) within South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).

"We have discussed all these issues and made good progress. We have a target to settle these by June 30, 2005. We hope we'll be able to meet the deadline," SS Kapur, leader of the Indian delegation, told journalists at the end of the three-day talks.

Kapur however said it was not very easy to bridge the differences on such complicated issues. "We had lot of discussions. Now we need a fine tuning on the sensitive list."

A negative list refers to the products that do not enjoy zero tariff facility under a free trade agreement. Under the ROO, two countries decide what should be the local value addition of a product to be eligible for free trade.

Echoing Kapur, leader of the Bangladesh delegation AKM Fazlur Rahman said the Dhaka meeting has made substantial progress. He hoped that they would be able to wrap up the negotiations by June next year.

"We had very fruitful meeting in this round and crucial discussions on ROO. The ROO issue earlier was divergent and we had lot of difficulties. Now we hope we'll be able to see some positive results in the next meeting in Delhi," he added.

At the meeting, the LDCs in Saarc -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal --raised their expectations to the developing members -- India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- on revenue compensation mechanism and technical assistance issues.

Saarc commerce secretaries will meet in Islamabad next month to review the preparatory work for the next Saarc Summit and progress of all expert committee meetings.

Saarc foreign ministers at the 12th summit of the regional forum in Islamabad early this year signed a landmark agreement to establish Safta for better economic cooperation among the South Asian nations. The Safta will be effective from January 1, 2006.