August 6, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26,1423

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WASHINGTON, Aug 5: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will leave here later this month for high-level talks in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, China and Japan, the State Department announced on Monday.

The announcement came two days after US Secretary of State Colin Powell return-ed home from an eight-day Asian tour that took him to India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Powell had mixed results in pressing South Asia’s nuclear neighbors to restart a dialogue on Kashmir, but his anti-terror message was embraced in southeast Asia, even when it was mixed with human rights concern.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker on Monday told a press briefing here that Armitage would begin his swing in Colombo on August 22.

Reeker said Armitage would then travel on to New Delhi on August 23 and the next day to Islamabad “where he’ll build upon his June visits to those cities and review the steps India and Pakistan have taken since that time to further de-escalate tension.”

He added that “initiatives to expand US bilateral relations with both countries will clearly be on the agendas in both capitals.”—AFP