Manmohan calls off visit to Philippines

The summit, scheduled for next week, has been postponed due to tropical stroms brewing in the Pacific, reports Nilova Roy Chaudhury.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not travel to the Philippines on Monday after two key summits were put off due to a tropical storm brewing in the Pacific.

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The government of President Gloria Arroyo postponed the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) due early next week in the Philippines city of Cebu after fears that the region was likely to be ravaged by a tropical storm.

But, official sources said, the severity of a terrorist threat to the site of the summits was a major determining factor in postponing the summits.

The US, British and Australian governments had earlier warned of an Al-Qaeda attack at Cebu.

Among others, Singh, his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wen Jiabao and Shinzo Abe were scheduled to attend the ASEAN summit, while Australian Premier John Howard was due there for the second EAS.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was due to travel to Cebu on Friday for the ministerial meetings prior to the annual India-ASEAN summit, also called off his visit.