Pranab to visit Pak in January

India and Pakistan will hold foreign minister-level talks on January 13 when External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee travels to Islamabad to invite President Pervez Musharraf for the SAARC summit in New Delhi early next year.

The was decided when Mukherjee today met his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri over lunch, their first interaction as foreign ministers.

The two leaders held a one-on-one meeting. This was followed by a lunch where officials from both sides were present. The two sides discussed ways to take the peace process forward.

After the 90-minute meeting, Mukherjee said "substantive talks" would be held when he travels to Pakistan to invite the Pakistan president for the 14th SAARC summit in April next year.

The last foreign minister-level talks were held in October 2005 when the then external affairs minister Natwar Singh went to Pakistan at the end of the second round of the composite dialogue.

Kasuri said Mukherjee and he realised the importance of good relations between the two countries.

Kasuri said he had developed trust with Mukherjee's predecessors, Natwar Singh and Yashwant Sinha, whom he met during the last two days.

"I am looking forward to developing similar trust with him (Mukherjee)," Kasuri said.

He said he was happy to see a "very senior Congress leader" as external affairs minister.

"It gives me great hope because whatever we have to do, it requires people and politicians who are strong," he said, adding that after meeting Mukherjee, he had "greater hope."

The foreign ministerial talks will take place two months after the foreign secretaries of the two countries held talks on all eight outstanding issues, including terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir.

At the meeting of the foreign secretaries, the two sides had set up a joint anti-terror mechanism and New Delhi gave Pakistan evidence of its links to terror strikes in India.

Meanwhile, Pakistan today said it had made certain proposals to India to resolve the Siachen issue and was awaiting a response. "The proposals were forwarded during the recent foreign secretary-level meeting in New Delhi," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told a media briefing here.