Tuesday, August 23 2005 12:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Officials from India and Pakistan would work out the dates for a possible meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf during the United Nations General Assembly annual session next month in the United States.

Though no dates have been fixed yet, the details of the meeting between the two leaders would be worked out by officials from both the sides, Foreign Office spokesman Naeem Khan told reporters in Islamabad.

Musharraf will pay a ten-day visit to the US from September 13 to attend the General Assembly annual session and is expected to have leisurely interactions with various heads of states, including US President George W Bush, he said.

Pakistan is leading the United For Consensus (UFC) group, which opposes the G-4 countries' demand for expansion of the UN Security Council, an issue that is expected to figure prominently during the UNGA meeting.

On the India-Pak peace process, Khan said the two countries were 'making step-by step progress and there are no insurmountable difficulties.'

Leaders of India and Pakistan were showing boldness and flexibility

The leaders of India and Pakistan were showing boldness and flexibility and are working towards a solution that is acceptable to both the sides, he said.

On the Baglihar issue, he said Pakistan submitted its full case to the neutral expert on August 18.

The Neutral Expert would review the cases by both the sides and is expected to visit the site, along with experts from both Pakistan and India in the first week of October.

On Kishanganga project, the Foreign Office spokesman said India was yet to respond to the new set of dates for talks proposed by Pakistan.

Regarding the progress on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, Khan said 'the talks were on-track' and a trilateral framework agreement was likely to be framed by the end of December, with construction commencing in early 2006.

Describing the project as 'an important CBM' between Pakistan and India, he said the petroleum ministers of Iran and India have held parleys with their Pakistani counterpart, while the Iranian minister had also met his counterpart in India.

He said Pakistan's growing energy requirements demanded that the project be pursued, besides considering other options like that of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline and Qatar-Pakistan gas project.

"We will go ahead with the pipeline. We need energy to sustain the high-level growth rate. We are exploring the possibility of TAP and Qatar as pipelines", he said.

Reports of a meeting b/w Pakistani experts

About reports of a meeting between Pakistani experts and those of International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the spokesman said the dates have yet to be finalised.

The spokesman also categorically rejected reports of any militant training camp near Mansehra and termed these as 'absolutely false.'

"Why Pakistan would send such people when it has deployed over 70,000 of its troops along its borders with Afghanistan," he asked.

"A peaceful Afghanistan was in Pakistan's best interest and we would benefit from peace and stability in our neighbourhood," he added.