India-Pakistan foreign minister-level talks postponed

NEW DELHI: The Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers' meeting, which was scheduled in July, has been postponed since the dates were clashing with the Presidential poll here.

According to official sources, Pakistan wanted to hold the meeting on July 19 which was not convenient to the Indian side in view of the Presidential poll on that date.

The new dates are being worked out at the convenience of both sides and the meeting is likely to happen in August, the sources said.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna was expected to travel to Islamabad on July 17-18 to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar after the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries met in Delhi.

The Indo-Pak dialogue, which was stalled following the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008, resumed last year with both sides holding a series of meetings on the eight components under the 'Composite Dialogue' format, including terrorism, Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and Trade.

The two countries have already had four segments including terrorism, trade and water in the past few months with two more -on Siachen and Sir Creek- slated for this month as part of the second round of talks.