Islamabad: Expressing the hope that President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would hold talks in New York next month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Pakistan has said such interactions would help in defusing tension and creating congenial atmosphere for furtherance of bilateralism.

Observing that the peace process with India has been moving forward successfully, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said that both the countries have taken positive stance on contentious issues in the dialogue held so far.

In the next phase of the composite dialogue process, Kasuri said in an informal chat with newspersons in Islamabad yesterday (Aug 20, 2004) that he would meet his Indian counterpart K Natwar Singh in New Delhi on Sept 5-6.

The meeting would take stock of the dialogue process held between the officials of the two countries on eight identified issues, including Jammu and Kashmir and set guidelines for future negotiations.

He expressed the hope that Musharraf and Singh would take steps to take forward the ongoing process of building confidence between the two countries and help find ways to resolve the Kashmir issue when they meet in New York.

"Such sidelines meetings always prove helpful in defusing tension and creating a congenial atmosphere for furtherance of bilateralism," he said.