Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Addu to give a push to normalisation of bilateral relations marked by shrinking trust deficit.

The meeting on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC summit comes a week after Pakistan took a path-breaking decision to confer MFN status to India 16 years after it got a similar treatment from New Delhi.

The two Prime Ministers met in a beach cottage in Shangrilla resort along the Indian Ocean and discussed a whole range of issues, including the need for Islamabad to take action against the 26/11 perpetrators and build on the recent Pakistani decision to grant the MFN status to India.

Before the meeting, the two prime ministers shook hands and posed for photos. When the photographers pressed for a hand shake again Gilani responded “once more” and the two leaders shook again for the shutterbox.

This was followed by a brief delegation level talks after which the two leaders met separately.

The delegation members included External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

From the Pakistani side, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Interior Minister Rehman Malik were among those present.

Singh and Gilani are meeting for the second time this year after their discussions on the margins of the Indo-Pak encounter in the Cricket world cup match in Mohali and third time in 18 months after their talks on the sidelines of the previous SAARC summit in Bhutan last year.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan on Wednesday discussed the key issue of terrorism, which has dogged the bilateral ties for years, with New Delhi asking Islamabad not to allow terrorism from its soil and seeking speedy trial of 26/11 case.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar for about 30 minutes at the convention centre in Gan, one of the islands at this atoll.

“Terror was the main stress of the meeting. Krishna told Pakistan that it should not allow its soil to be used for terror. To which Khar assured that her country will not allow its soil to be used for such acts,” an official privy to the meeting told the news agency in Maldives.

The official said, “India also raised the issue of the 26/11 trial in Pakistan and Pakistani judicial commission’s visit to India in connection with the Mumbai attack case.”

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Krishna said, “Terrorism continues to be the focal point of India’s dialogue process with Pakistan. So when we discuss bilateral issues, we certainly factor terror and its various ramifications”.

He was responding to a query if the issue of terror was raised by him during the meet.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said such meetings add to the “feel good factor”.

“More contacts, more meetings are forward looking. We did discuss the meeting at summit level tomorrow,” he said.