NEW DELHI - India has turned down another invitation from Afghanistan to hold a meeting of the Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) which may revive the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in 2011, said local media Saturday.

The local daily The Hindu quoted diplomatic sources at the highest level as saying that New Delhi has conveyed its inability to hold the meeting that would be chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani "due to prior commitments."

New Delhi has also conveyed that Swaraj will not attend the upcoming Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) in Kabul on Sept. 3 - 4, and instead Sujata Mehta, Secretary of Multilateral and Economic Relations, will represent India at the conference, said the report.

But India's low-level attendance at the RECCA may not affect relations given India's 2.3 billion U.S. dollars commitment of aid to Afghanistan, according to the report.

However, the report quoted Afghan officials as saying the delay in the SPC meeting is more significant, as India and Afghanistan have held only one meeting of the SPC in 2012.  (Xinhua)