"The summit was postponed on a lame excuse [of India] which is very sad indeed," Saifur told journalists at the Secretariat yesterday.

He noted that the summit was first postponed due to tsunami. "That was an act of nature. We have nothing to say against that. But the irrational excuse given by India now is unacceptable. We are deeply hurt," Saifur pointed out.

"For the last few months we worked tirelessly for the summit. We spent a lot of money -- which in particular was a big burden for my ministry," the finance minister said a day after the summit was postponed for the second time.

"India first talked about Nepal. But we have instances where in the past the summit took place with an undemocratic military government," he quips.

Asked whether the latest developments would affect the Indo-Bangladesh relationship, Saifur said, "The Bangladesh-India relationship will continue despite all these difficulties."

"We share several thousand kilometres of common border. They are our neighbour. Following such incidents, the neighbourly relationship typically suffers. May be this will happen, but we will have to continue our relationship. We shall try to make sure that this kind of attitude is not reflected in our future activities and relationship," he said.

"India is a big country... if a big country does not co-operate with an open heart, no regional co-operation will take place," Saifur added.

Replying to a question whether it will affect the ongoing talks on a regional gas pipeline project between India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the finance minister replied: "It will discourage, frustrate and affect our relationship. But it should not stand as a roadblock at all. We shall continue the effort to better our relationship."

Expressing frustration at the postponement of the seven-nation summit, the finance minister also criticised the opposition political parties for their negative attitude. "Within our country, our opposition parties also did not show any helpful attitude."

Referring to former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria's killing, Saifur said, "This has also grieved us. We also hold public meetings and we may also face a similar situation. We want a smooth investigation."

"But such a personal issue cannot be used to oppose a conference like the Saarc Summit. This is not justified," said the finance minister.