NEWS DELHI, Sept 7: Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan will meet in New York later this month as part of a ministerial meeting of Saarc states, increasing the likelihood of a visit to New Delhi by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, sources said on Sunday.

While the Saarc foreign secretaries had agreed recently in Kathmandu to hold the delayed summit in Islamabad in early January, sources said, a final acceptance of India’s participation would be known after Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and Mr Kasuri attend the meeting of Saarc’s council of ministers tentatively scheduled on 28th Sept.

The two would be guided by some crucial developments that are expected to take place within the Saarc context, together with the addresses by President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the UN General Assembly on Sept 24 and Sept 25, respectively.

Diplomatic sources said a meeting of Saarc experts in Kathmandu, possibly on Sept 24, could give a fresh look to the issue of free trade and preferential trade agreements within the group that are hanging fire.

Diplomats said Pakistan could signal a thaw on the issue in Kathmandu thus clearing the road ahead for more vigorous bilateral ties.

India has so far rejected any possibility of a Musharraf- Vajpayee meeting in New York, but diplomatic sources said the world was keeping their eyes and ears glued to their speeches in the hope of dramatic changes.

Our Dhaka correspondent adds: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri will visit Bangladesh on a three-day-long visit on Sept 13.

He would visit Dhaka as a special envoy of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to formally invite Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to the 12th Saarc summit, said a foreign office press release here on Sunday.

He is also expected to call on the President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, Finance and Planing Minister M. Saifur Rahman and Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan during his stay in Dhaka.