NEW DELHI, June 8: Bilateral talks over the next few weeks, a part of the composite dialogue with India, may give succour to President Gen Pervez Musharraf when a few of his global allies have shown disapproval of a raging standoff with Pakistan’s media and opposition groups, an Indian newspaper said on Friday.

“At a time when both US and EU are asking Musharraf to toe the democracy line, and Musharraf himself defined Talibanisation as Pakistan’s greatest danger, India may end up being his only interlocutor who is not getting in his way,” said The Times of India.

Beginning with June 26 and 27 when the water secretaries of the two countries meet in New Delhi to pick up the threads of their discussions on the Wullar Barrage, more important talks are scheduled in July as well as August, said Pakistani officials.

They said the home secretaries are to meet for their scheduled talks here on July 3 and 4. There is considerable speculation whether they would take up issues like the Mumbai train blasts and the New Delhi-Attari train bombing, a subject that more appropriately suits the Anti-Terror Mechanism they had jointly set up.

The commerce secretaries would meet on July 31 and August 1 to take forward their discussions on trade and tarrif issues.