No details were available from the Ministry of External Affairs here on whether Nepal, as the host country, had been formally notified but a SAARC diplomat confirmed that at least three countries had indeed asked that the summit be ``deferred,'' at least for the time being.

The ministry spokesman only said that ``consultations were on,'' but refused to say which countries were consulting with each other and at what level.India, Bhutan and Bangladesh, on the other hand, decided on Monday that they would drop the available charade of ``the time not being suitable to hold a summit,'' and baldly state their inability to attend, if Pakistan's military dictator, Gen Musharraf, was also being invited to Kathmandu.

The Indian Express had reported earlier thatyoung democracies of South Asia, especially Bangladesh and Nepal, were extremely worried about the recent coup in Pakistan and did not want to accord ``early legitimacy'' to Musharraf. A regional diplomat said SAARC did not want to give the Pakistani dictator the opportunity to ``grandstand across the South Asian canvas.''Bhutan's constitutional monarch Jigme Singye Wangchuk's decision to join India and Bangladesh is as much to do with fact that he still hasn't received a formal invitation to the summit. Nevertheless, he has only recently awarded democracy to his subjects and in the early part of the consultations did not want to be openly displaying his hand.

India's reasons have been clear from the start and are said to have flowed directly from Prime Minister Vajpayee himself: As the author of the Kargil conflict, Musharraf could not sit on the same table with other democratically elected heads of state. Vajpayee also realised that if the summit was held on time at the end of this month, he might nothave been able to avoid a bilateral meeting with Musharraf.

In the last ten days, the telephone lines burned between the SAARC capitals, as the political leadership consulted with each other on the best course of action to adopt. Initially, some South Asian leaders felt that Nepal should just be told that the ``time was not ripe'' to hold a summit, leaving the euphemism to Kathmandu's interpretation.

In the end, however, it was decided that what would be bluntly put forward was the role of the Pakistani coup in the destabilisation of the region. SAARC rules state that even if one country wants a postponement, the remaining six will have to comply.

On Monday, therefore, the Nepalese ambassador in New Delhi was informed by his counterpart from Bhutan, while the Nepalese ambassador in Dhaka was called in by the Bangladeshi foreign office, to tell them of their respective countries' decisions. India also informed Nepal both in the capital as well as in Kathmandu.

The joint decision is significant notonly because India has been joined by her smaller neighbours, but because these nations have come out in the open about their views. Bangladesh, especially, has been very nervous that the successful Pakistani coup could give a shot in the arm to the barely camouflaged militarist forces in the opposition.

In Dhaka, memories of the gruesome assassination of Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman, who along with most of his family was slaughtered at midnight barely years after he led his country to freedom from Pakistan in 1971, are still very much alive.

But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, his daughter, was driven to her present decision not only by filial horror, it is said, but also by the fear that her own opponents may use the success of the Pakistani coup to mount an assault on her. Her chief rival Khaleda Zia of the BNP is the wife of Gen. Zia-ur Rahman who himself came to power through a coup.