ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a summit in Egypt next week, a foreign ministry spokesman said in Islamabad.

‘The prime minister will be meeting, in addition to his Indian counterpart, several other heads of government and state,’ foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters in Islamabad.

‘We are going with an open mind and hope that the composite dialogue is resumed,’ Basit added.

Singh, whose re-election was welcomed in Pakistan, said in June that he wanted to try again to make peace with Pakistan, but stressed Islamabad needed to take ‘strong and effective’ action to end terrorism. — AFP