NEW DELHI, July 4: Indian and Pakistani Foreign Secretaries will meet in Kathmandu next week as participants in a crucial Saarc meeting but they will not hold bilateral talks on the peace process underway, according to news reports quoting Indian officials on Thursday.

A Pakistani official declined to comment on the reports saying that Pakistan had maintained that it was open to talks at any level and anywhere with India. However, a western diplomat, ostensibly in the thick of developments between the two countries, expressed surprise at the reports, saying: “If they are planning to pass this golden opportunity what can anyone do to help them?”

The Saarc foreign secretaries meeting is scheduled for July 9 and 10.

Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha will address a visiting delegation of Pakistani businessmen and their Indian counterparts on July 10, probably his first address to Pakistani citizens.

One news agency quoted an unidentified official of the Indian foreign ministry as denying that meetings have been scheduled between Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar in Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu meeting is a routine one where the budgets and annual reports will be approved, the official said.

In Kathmandu, Pakistan is expected to give the dates for the next Saarc summit, where Nepal will formally hand over the chairmanship to Islamabad.

“The dates are eagerly awaited by the diplomatic community in New Delhi and Islamabad because that will be an occasion for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to visit Islamabad,” the report said.

Saarc could well provide the setting for the first meeting between Vajpayee and President Musharraf since the Agra summit, diplomats and reports said.