"I will take this opportunity to take the peace process further," Singh declared to Indian reporters allowed to meet him at Islamabad airport's VIP lounge.

Singh, who took office on May 24 in India's new Congress-led government, will meet his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on the sidelines of a regional foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Career diplomat Singh is no stranger to Pakistan, having served as India's envoy to Islamabad from 1980 to 1982.

He and Kasuri have already met twice in the past month, but both times in third countries on the sidelines of international conferences.

Singh was also expected to meet President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, who will take over as Pakistan's prime minister next month.

Singh and Kasuri will discuss the disputed Muslim majority of region Kashmir, which has sparked two wars between their countries, and the wider peace process.

After nearly going to war a third time over Kashmir in 2002, India's ex-premier Atal Behari Vajpayee kickstarted a peace process in April last year which left-leaning Congress has vowed to continue.

The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India have been holding talks in Islamabad to prepare the ground for their meetings.

Amid the 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.

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 between Singh and Kasuri in August.

WAR.WIRE