Singh is expected to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting in Islamabad.

Singh's visit to Pakistan, where he served as India's ambassador in the 1980s, is his first since taking charge of the foreign ministry in May as part of a new left-leaning coalition government.

Singh was also expected to meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is to take over as prime minister next month, the Indian official said.

The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India, Riaz Khokhar and Shashank, who goes by one name, were holding talks in Islamabad to prepare the ground for the meetings, said the official.

The pair first met in the Chinese city of Qingdao on the sidelines of a meeting of Asian foreign ministers in June. They met again at a Southeast Asian forum in Jakarta a few days later.

The dialogue follows talks between Indian and Pakistani officials to resolve their 56-year-old dispute over Kashmir and put in place measures to minimise the risk of accidental nuclear confrontation.

India and Pakistan nearly went to war over Kashmir in 2002 after an Islamic militant attack on the Indian parliament which New Delhi alleged was carried out by Pakistani-backed rebel groups.

Amid a thaw in tensions, the two sides have agreed to strive for a final settlement to the 56-year-old dispute and to reopen consulates in Karachi and Bombay which were closed in 1994.

The peace process was kickstarted in April 2003 by India's then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the new Indian government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vowed to continue to seek peace with Pakistan.

Indian and Pakistani officials are to meet in the coming weeks to discuss an array of subjects including normalising trade and increasing cultural ties before another meeting of Singh and Kasuri scheduled for August.

Pakistan is hosting a two-day meeting of South Asian foreign ministers aimed at boosting trade and commercial cooperation in the region.

The July 20-21 meeting is to be attended by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

WAR.WIRE