Pakistan says in touch with India for meeting between PMs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today said it was in touch with India to fix a date for a possible meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

"The date for the meeting is being worked out," Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said.

Asked if any dates have been proposed, he told a weekly news briefing here that the two governments are in touch.

Chaudhry said should the chance for a meeting arise, it will be good opportunity for the two leaders to talk to each other and carry forward the dialogue.

Pressed further, he said howsoever "difficult" the issue might be, it should be "settled on the table".

The proposed meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan could discuss "issues of mutual interest, the ways of building mutual confidence and improving bilateral relations", Chaudhry said.

Recent tensions on the LoC have cast a shadow on the proposed meeting between the two premiers on the sidelines of the UN session.

Pakistan has pitched for the meeting on the diplomatic front and back channel negotiations are also on.

Former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shahryar Khan and ex-diplomat S K Lambah, the point men for Pakistan-India back-channel diplomacy, met in Dubai last week to ease tensions and firm up a meeting between the premiers.

Asked about the outcome of these talks, Chaudhry said track-II dialogue issues are not spoken about in public.