14 July 2004	Wednesday	25 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, July 13: Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh will call on President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on the sidelines of the Saarc foreign ministers' meeting here next week, sources said.

The request for the meetings has already been conveyed to the government through diplomatic channels, the sources said, adding that Mr Singh would also be holding talks with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

The Indian external affairs minister is scheduled to arrive on July 19, a day before the meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers begins here. The council comprises foreign ministers of the seven Saarc member states.

It is believed that Mr Singh's planned meetings with the Pakistani leadership will eclipse the Saarc-related event just as the meeting between former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Musharraf on the sidelines of the 12th Saarc Summit did.

A 40-member Indian media team will be arriving here next week to cover the Saarc event and more so the Pakistan-India bilateral talks. The Indian high commission is setting up a media centre at the same hotel where it did during the Saarc Summit in January. Speaking at a function last week, Mr Singh said he would carry forward the peace process with Pakistan during his visit to Islamabad.