WASHINGTON, Oct 4: Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca are due to arrive in Islamabad early Sunday morning.

Mr Armitage was scheduled to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan earlier in the week but the visit was postponed because of a brief illness, the State Department said.

A South Asian diplomat told Dawn on Saturday that Mr Armitage is due to meet President Musharraf on Monday in Islamabad.

A State Department spokeswoman, asked to comment on Mr Armitage’s new schedule, said on Saturday that “the deputy secretary will visit South Asia between October 4 and October 7 and will be meeting President Pervez Musharraf, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other officials.”

“He will discuss a range of regional security and bilateral issues including the status of US assistance programme on global war on terror.”

In Islamabad, the spokeswoman said, “the deputy secretary will discuss our close cooperation with the government of Pakistan in the global war on terrorism and the need to assure security along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and regional stability issues.”

Earlier, State Department’s spokeman, Richard Boucher told a news briefing: “Deputy Secretary (of State) Mr Armitage was due to leave on Friday morning for South Asia.

He was delayed due to a very brief illness.

Unfortunately, he has had to cancel his stops in Central Asia at this time.”