ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Pakistan said on Saturday that President Pervez Musharraf was ready to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the South Asian summit in Nepal early next year.

“We are ready to meet,” government spokesman Anwar Mahmood said, when asked about Mr Vajpayee’s statement earlier in the day that he was willing to hold talks with President Musharraf on the sidelines of the SAARC meeting in January. “We could meet,” Mr Vajpayee told reporters in New Delhi.

Mr Mahmood described the statement as positive. “We have always said that the dialogue process between India and Pakistan should continue. Pakistan considers it a positive step.”

Mr Vajpayee and President Musharraf have not met since a landmark summit in Agra in July, which ended in failure over the Kashmir issue.—AFP