ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Sept 24 on the sidelines of the 59th UN General Assembly session in New York, Dawn learnt through reliable diplomatic sources on Saturday.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the two leaders and it acquires special significance in the backdrop of the recently concluded first round of the 2004 Pakistan-India composite dialogue.

Confirming the date of the high-profile summit meeting, sources in the government said the planned duration of the meeting is 45- minutes but it could go on beyond that. President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh will both be assisted by their respective foreign ministers and senior officials, it is learnt.

Officials said the venue of the meeting is not yet confirmed.

Although officials here maintain that there is no fixed agenda for the Musharraf-Singh meeting, they say it will focus largely on the current composite dialogue process.

"The two leaders will primarily review the status of the composite dialogue process. They will take stock of the progress and the lack of progress made on the eight issues on the agenda including the Kashmir dispute," a senior official said.

The Musharraf-Singh summit follows the foreign ministers level talks in New Delhi earlier this month during which progress on the composite dialogue process was reviewed.

On the quiet back-channel track Indian National Security J. N. Dixit and his Pakistani counterpart Tariq Aziz met in Dubai last week to prepare for the upcoming Musharraf-Singh meeting.

While Pakistan and India are committed to the dialogue process there is concern in some quarters that progress on the key issue of Kashmir remains slow.

It is believed that President Musharraf will raise this issue during his meeting with the Indian Prime Minister. He is likely to emphasise the need for setting some timelines for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute that Pakistan considers as the core issue. His thrust will be that tangible progress on dispute settlement ought to be made simultaneously with confidence building measures to ensure that the current peace process is sustained, sources say.

Meanwhile, in the official, diplomatic and political circles great importance is being attached to the maiden Musharraf-Singh summit meeting. While Pakistani and Indian diplomats generally sound optimistic about its bearing on the nascent peace process, they do not expect any major breakthrough on Kashmir at this meeting.

"All eyes are fixed on the meeting. It is a very important meeting and lets hope for the best," said Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan at his weekly news briefing while refusing to predict its outcome.