Leaders of South Asia, home to nearly one-fifth of humanity, gather in Bangladesh this weekend for a twice-postponed summit to push long-standing goals to reduce poverty, boost trade and fight terrorism. But 20 years after the grouping was born, old rivalries and internal conflicts are still blocking any meaningful progress.

India, which has about 70 percent of the region?s people, wealth and land, has had differences at one time or another with almost all other members. It has gone to war with Pakistan three times, and came close to a fourth in 2002, and has had significant differences with Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Bhutan and the Maldives make up the rest of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Analysts say creating wealth in one of the poorest regions of the world is impossible without some progress on diplomacy. ?Diplomatic tensions won?t be resolved either at this SAARC or later on,? said Sukh Deo Muni, a South Asia expert at New Delhi?s Jawaharlal Nehru University. ?They can try and camouflage their political and diplomatic problems by agreeing on economics.?

The Nov. 12-13 summit of the SAARC in Dhaka is also meeting under the shadow of the two biggest natural disasters in the world over the past year ? the Asian tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake. The two calamities killed over 100,000 people in south Asia and setting up a system for the seven member states to help deal better with natural disasters is on top of SAARC?s agenda. SAARC was formed in 1985 to integrate a region which largely encompasses all of British colonial India through business links.

The previous SAARC summit in Islamabad in 2004 agreed to launch a South Asian free trade area from 2006. But less than two months before the agreement comes into force, members continue to quibble over tariff cuts, a list of sensitive trading items and a system to compensate poorer members for loss of revenue. Free trade is expected to boost economic activity and growth in the region, home to about 1.5 billion people, more than 400 million of whom live on less than a dollar a day.

Although a preferential trade treaty has been in place for a decade, trading within SAARC accounts for less than 5 percent of the members? total global trade. Economic experts like DH. Pai Panandikar of New Delhi?s RPG Foundation, a private think-tank, say politics precedes trade in South Asia and progress is possible only if political tensions are resolved first. ?Any free trade between India and Pakistan is not likely because settlement of political issues, particularly Kashmir, is a precondition for harmonising trade relations,? Panandikar said.

Most SAARC summits in recent years have become a sideshow and bilateral talks between leaders of India and Pakistan have grabbed more attention, particularly after the nuclear powers came close to war over Kashmir in 2002. Although their ties have improved significantly since, new tensions between the old rivals are expected to cast a shadow over the Dhaka summit as well.Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is expected to keep a low profile at the summit as her term is set to end after the Nov. 17 presidential election, seen as crucial to end the logjam in the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels. With such odds against it, prospects for any major breakthrough are bleak, analysts said.