COLOMBO: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has started a three-day visit to Sri Lanka during which several agreements aiming to strengthen relations between the two south Asian nations are to be signed.

Sharif was welcomed Monday by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sharif and his delegation will hold bilateral discussions with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and other officials on Tuesday.

Separately he will make a speech on Sri Lanka-Pakistan relations.

Several bilateral agreements in the areas of health, science and technology, trade, money laundering and terrorism financing are to be signed.

Pakistan grew closer to Sri Lanka during the island nation's decades-long civil war by supplying much needed arms when its closest neighbor India refused to sell arms.