BRUSSELS Pakistan will not allow questions of protocol to get in the way of efforts to upgrade relations with the European Union, the foreign minister told Dawn.

“We will do what is best and in Pakistan's interest,” Mr Qureshi told this correspondent following reports that a planned EU-Pakistan summit could be jeopardised over suggestions by Islamabad that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani rather than President Asif Ali Zardari would attend the meeting.

Mr Qureshi said Pakistan was not making a 'big issue' of the EU demands and wanted the summit to be held as planned on April 21 in Brussels.

EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have said that the Pakistani delegation at the summit should be led by President Zardari.

Confirming the EU stance, Mr Qureshi said he had been told that Mr Gilani was respected and welcome in Brussels but any meeting between the Pakistani premier and the EU's senior-most officials could not be described as a summit.