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'They didn't even bat an eyelid when the bill arrived'

The entente cordiale between India and Pakistan is also being played out in London, where three men from the subcontinent contributed to the biggest restaurant bill ever recorded in the British capital.

Only days before the Agra summit, two Indians and a Pakistani are revealed as paticipating in the blow out dinner that cost 44,007 pounds for six people at one of London's top restaurants.

All six are said to be employees of Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank.

According to a leading British newspaper the flag bearers of this expensive celebration included Iftikhar Hyder, a graduate of Pakistan's Institute of Business Administration who recently joined Barclays as a senior risk analyst, Mahish Chandra and Dayananda Kumar from the bank's London trading floor on Canary wharf and Ruth Cove, a colleague from Barclays in New York.

The remaining two diners are yet to be identified, but the bill they collectively ran up at the Petrus restaurant in St James amounts to 7,334.50 per head.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the most expensive meal per head previously recorded was also at a London restaurant when Czech financier Viktor Kozeny invited two friends to dinner at La Gavroche. Their meals then worked out at 4,363.77 pounds each.

The fantastic sums of money involved in the latest culinary adventure would have been more than enough to underwrite a banquet that included the Indian and Pakistani delegations to the Agra peace talks and most of the local population as well.

One reason for the huge cost of the London meal was the price of the vintage wines that the diners ordered. A copy of the bill obtained by the Sunday Times shows the wines included several bottles of Chateau Petrus claret, one of which cost 12,300 pounds.

According to sources cited by the newspaper Hyder paid 11,500 for his share of the bill and Cove 8,500. Chandra and Kumar paid 12,000 pounds and 9,000 pounds respectively. The remaining 3,000 pounds and a generous four figure tip is believed to have been met by the other two diners who have not yet been named.

When details of the meal were first released by Petrus proprietor Gordon Ramsay, he told the media, "They seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously ...and they didn't bat an eyelid when they got the bill."

Neither Hyder nor Cove have so far responded to media inquiries and both Chandra and Kumar are quoted as saying they have no comment to make. Kumar contacted last week in New York told the Sunday Times, "I am at work and we have compliance procedures here. I am afraid I cannot help you. All these calls are taped. I cannot make any comment."

Barclays is one of Britain's leading High Street banks. Its chief executive, Matt Barrett, who was appointed in 1999, has collected more than six million pounds in salary and bonuses and is believed to have share options potentially worth more than 30 million pounds.

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