Indo-Pak foreign sec talks in Delhi in Oct: Report

The Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks, postponed after the Mumbai blasts, will resume next month in New Delhi following an understanding reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Havana, the official Pakistani media said on Sunday.

'It is expected that the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will resume the dialogue next month in the Indian capital', Pakistan's state-run APP news agency quoted officials as saying.

The talks will have an overall review of the third round of composite dialogue, which was held in June.

The official media played down the significance of the Indo-Pak agreement to set up an 'anti-terrorism institutional mechanism' to identify and implement 'counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations' and projected the resumption of dialogue process and references to Kashmir in the joint statement as a 'success' to Pakistan. 

'The joint statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting between Musharraf and Singh in Havana Saturday night has been widely welcomed by the international diplomatic community since it addressed the core issue of Kashmir between Pakistan and India in very emphatic manner', the official report said.

The statement also provided for the restoration of the stalled Indo-Pak composite dialogue, which Pakistan sees as a success, it said.

While the official media played down the agreement to set up mechanism to deal with issues relating to terrorism, analysts figuring in different television networks including state-run PTV projected it as a win-win deal for both.

While India addressed Pakistan's concerns in the joint statement which stated the 'need to build on convergences and narrow down divergences, Pakistan has agreed for a joint mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations', they said.

The analysts said it was an important concession made by Pakistan in addressing India's concerns.