Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense belonging to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) will accompany President Pervez Musharraf in his six-day China visit, starting on April 10. This would be his first foreign trip after the formation of the new government as a result of the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar will be the two cabinet members traveling with the president. At the same time, the other major coalition partner, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has refused to be part of the presidential entourage. Musharraf wanted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar of the PML-N to accompany him in view of the increasing economic cooperation between Pakistan and China and some likely agreements in the area, but Dar has refused to do so. He excused himself on the pretext that he had an important meeting with the World Bank around that time. Besides holding bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao at whose invitation he is visiting China, Musharraf will also visit Boao where he will be the keynote speaker at the Boao Forum for Asia. __
