PCB chief executive Rameez Raja said on Tuesday: "The Bangladesh team is here and with we have South Africa and New Zealand to follow this season. We are now optimistic about the future."

Pakistan have played just two Tests and three one-day internationals at home since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Series against West Indies and Australia were switched to neutral venues due to security concerns.

Pakistan host Bangladesh in the first of a three-Test series starting on Wednesday. The match, in the port city of Karachi, will be the first on Pakistani soil since May 2002 and will launch the first full series in the country since 2000.

A suicide bomb attack in Karachi in May 2002 killed 11 French naval technicians outside a hotel where the New Zealand cricket test team were staying.

They returned home the same day, halfway through a two-Test series.

"We have always maintained that security is not such a big factor in Pakistan as it is made out to be," Raja said.

"We have always been confident about hosting international teams but didn't get the required cooperation in the last two years."

Pakistan captain Rashid Latif told Reuters: "No one has liked playing home matches at neutral venues. The players are now feeling relieved getting the chance to play some international cricket in front of home crowds."

Raja said India should consider coming for a Test series early next year.

India called off a tour of Pakistan in April amid tensions over Kashmir.

The Indian cricket board is awaiting government clearance to resume bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan this year and will attempt to break the ice by sending an 'A' team to Pakistan in November for a triangular tournament.

The teams last hosted each other in a Test series four years ago.

Pakistan's last full home Test series was in late 2000 against England.