Islamabad, Feb. 12: Pakistan on Friday said it would raise the core issues with India and press for resumption of the stalled peace process through the composite dialogue when it sends its foreign secretary to New Delhi on February 25 for talks.

The decision to send Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir was taken at a meeting in Islamabad chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Kashmir Parliamentary Committee chairman Maulana Fazlur Rehman attended the meeting, an official statement issued from the Pakistan Prime Minister’s House said.

In a statement issued in New Delhi on Friday, the ministry of external affairs confirmed that Pakistan has accepted its offer, made telephonically at the end of January, to hold foreign secretary-level talks, reports our correspondent. The release said Islamabad had agreed to New Delhi’s suggestion of holding the talks here on February 25. The confirmation came on Friday with Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir telephoning Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao to convey acceptance of India’s invitation. Sources in New Delhi maintained that in the talks, India’s focus will be on counter-terrorism and infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir. However, India has said that it is ready to discuss any issue raised by Pakistan but the label of "composite dialogue", suspended by India after the Mumbai attacks, is not acceptable to New Delhi.

Following a meeting between Prime Minister Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009, it was decided that the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet and discuss how both the countries could move forward to resume the composite dialogue. The meeting at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad discussed the whole gamut of Pakistan-India relations, particularly Kashmir and water disputes between the two countries.

"During the meeting it was decided that foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries would be held on February 25 in New Delhi in which the Pakistan side should raise all the core issues and press upon India for expeditious resolution through resumption of the composite dialogue," the statement said.

Prime Minister Gilani told foreign secretary Salman Bashir, who was also present at the meeting, that his talks with his Indian counterpart should be result-oriented and meaningful. "Pakistan has always favoured talks with India to resolve the outstanding issues and believes it the only way forward," the statement said.

Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit at an earlier briefing urged India not to attach any conditions and said, "Without engagements we cannot resolve our disputes, and unless we resolve disputes, there cannot be viable peace and prosperity in the region."

The composite dialogue ground to a halt following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.

"A meeting between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will be held on February 25 in New Delhi," the statement said. "The meeting would discuss Kashmir, water, Pak-India talks and other issues. The Prime Minister has directed the foreign secretaries to make the talks fruitful," it added.

Shafqat Ali