ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: US President George Bush’s Deputy National Security adviser Stephen Hadley arrives here early Wednesday morning for a day-long visit that will mark the opening of dialogue between the US administration and the newly-installed government in Islamabad.

The US official will call on President Pervez Musharraf and is also likely to meet the newly elected Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali.

“A meeting with the Prime Minister has been sought but so far we have not been able to confirm it,” officials at the Foreign office told Dawn on Tuesday. This will be the first high-level US visitor to Pakistan after Jamali took oath as the country’s Prime Minister.

While thrust of the talks between the two sides would be bilateral matters, regional issues including Pakistan-India relations, Afghanistan and Iraq were also likely to come up during discussions, officials said.

“Pakistan is likely to raise issues of greater market access, write-off of loans and economic assistance to Pakistan,” a senior official told Dawn on the eve of the US official’s visit.

Hadley, who will also be holding talks with the Indian leadership, is likely to urge both the governments to de-escalate the hostile rhetoric that has intensified in the last few days. Officials expect that he would reiterate the US government’s position of an early resumption of dialogue between the two countries.

Contrary to speculations that the visit of the US has been prompted by reports of the alleged Pakistan-North Korea nuclear cooperation that Islamabad has categorically denied, officials at both the US embassy and Foreign office maintained that it was a previously scheduled visit for routine consultations with the government of Pakistan.

“They (the US administration) don’t do it this way, Powell would just pick the phone and talk to Musharraf instead of sending such a high profile official to convey such a message,” insisted a former diplomat, dismissing such speculations. “A lot of discretion is exercised in such matters,” the diplomat added.

Other informed diplomatic sources shared this view, saying that the US President’s key aide was unlikely to carry “any new or special message” for the Pakistan government.