Regional heavyweights India and Pakistan sparred at today's opening in the Nepali capital Kathmandu of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit, the first since 2011.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that yesterday marked the sixth anniversary of the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, in which Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people over four days.

"If we are sensitive to each other's security and lives of our people, we will deepen friendship, spark co-operation and advance co-operation in our region," he said.

"Let us work together to combat terrorism," he urged, in a thinly veiled reference to what New Delhi sees as Pakistan's links with extremist groups operating in India.

"My vision for our region is a dispute-free South Asia where instead of fighting with each other, we jointly fight poverty, illiteracy, disease, malnourishment and unemployment," declared his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

Summits are supposed to be held annually but are often shelved due to member nations disagreeing on meeting dates.

Leaders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected to sign agreements on the sharing of railways, roads and energy at the two-day summit, which ends today.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that he hopes to bring energy from central Asia to south Asia.

Mr Sharif said: "We need to focus on collectively harnessing indigenous energy potential. We should also consider arrangement for cross-regional gas and oil pipelines."

Discussion is expected on according China a bigger role in the SAARC than its current observer status.