New Delhi, Dec. 30: The Saarc summit scheduled to be held in Dhaka from January 9 to 11 has been postponed with three of its members ? Sri Lanka, Maldives and India ? struggling to come to terms with the death and devastation triggered by Sunday?s tsunami.

No fresh dates have been fixed.

Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga informed Bangladesh of her inability to travel out of the country so soon after the tsunami disaster. With over 27,000 dead and several thousands missing, the island nation is facing one of its worst natural disasters. The President has declared a national emergency.

Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom also asked for a postponement, as much of his island country was under water.

India, however, was ready to attend the 13th Saarc summit in Dhaka.

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka constitute the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

The Saarc charter says a summit cannot be held without all heads of states and governments attending it. Summits have been postponed in the past mainly because of the tension between India and Pakistan.

The 1999 summit was postponed because Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee refused to attend it after General Pervez Musharraf unseated Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in Pakistan.

India, at that time, did not want to give legitimacy to a military dictator, whom it saw as responsible for sabotaging the Lahore peace initiative by launching the Kargil operation.

The summit finally took place in Kathmandu in 2002.