Beijing: Amid the buoyancy in Sino-India ties, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will have a maiden meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh early next week in Laos on the sidelines of a key regional summit, a senior Chinese official said in Beijing today (Nov 24, 2004).

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, Wu Dawei told reporters in Beijing that China is positive about such a high-level meeting with India in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

"We have such a consideration and plans," Wu said at a special briefing on the Chinese Premier's upcoming visit to Laos for the Eighth Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China and other meetings from November 28-30.

Official sources said that both New Delhi and Beijing were working on scheduling the first meeting between Singh and Wen prior to the Chinese premier's planned visit to India "within the first quarter of 2005".

The Singh-Wen meeting will be the highest-level face-to-face contact between the two countries since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government assumed office in May 2004.

It will be held amid signals that India and China have made "progress" in resolving their vexed boundary dispute that had impaired bilateral ties for decades.