NEW DELHI, Nov 13: Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan arrived here on Monday to review the outcome of the third round of India-Pakistan composite dialogue he kicked off in January, and said he expects "very constructive discussions" with India's Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

The talks, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, were preceded on Monday by comments to an Indian TV channel by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, claiming that the Siachen issue was ripe and ready for a resolution within days.

"All I can tell you is that we are very near. There are differences but these differences can be bridged by political will," Mr Kasuri told NDTV. "Given the political will, we have narrowed down our differences enough for us to have a decision within a matter of days, not even week."

Apparently referring to Indian army explicitly putting conditions for demilitarisation of Siachen, Mr Kasuri said: "I have seen certain statements coming from India, from certain sections, which have surprised me. I thought those sections do not speak publicly in India but they do". With former Indian defence minister George Fernandes and the rightwing BJP opposing troop withdrawal from Siachen, a decision would entail a bold political choice for New Delhi.

The foreign secretaries' talks would inevitably cover the six or seven issues listed in their joint statement of Jan 18, including Kashmir, terrorism and nuclear risk reduction. However, media attention here has been riveted to the Mumbai blasts of July 11 that all but froze the bilateral dialogue until a declaration by the two leaders in Havana nudged the foreign secretaries back to the table.

That the secretaries have been directed also to set up a mechanism to jointly fight terrorism is a new element in the dialogue and it has already received the support of the United States, which is believed to improve the chances of success despite trenchant criticism from usual lobbies on both sides. The presence of Mr Menon as head of the Indian delegation is widely expected to eye positive results, given the fact that he is a rare foreign secretary to have served in Pakistan as high commissioner.

Missing from the format is the usual foreign ministers' meeting that follows the foreign secretaries' talks. According to the minutes of their January talks the current meeting of the foreign secretaries was to be crowned by a political review by the foreign ministers.

An Indian invitation for Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri did exist when the meeting was fixed for July, but was apparently not revived after the Havana summit.

Pakistani officials did not seem perturbed by this unexplained change in the format and seemed happy to note that Mr Kasuri would be in New Delhi in any case, albeit in a private capacity, to attend the wedding of the daughter of senior minister Mani Shankar Aiyar later this month.

There is strong speculation that Mr Kasuri's visit would be more than a mere private matter and a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may hold the key to a likely visit by the Indian leader to Islamabad before the end of the year or early next year. It would also be Mr Kasuri's first meeting with India's new foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee. In any case Dr Singh's visit should happen before the Saarc summit in New Delhi, scheduled for April 3, gets underway.

The parameters of the discussions on terrorism, particularly the proposed joint mechanism, are expected to hinge on the Indian gambit.

Does the Indian side have enough clinching evidence to press the claims made by the Mumbai police chief of Pakistan's culpability in the crime? Official sources in the Indian camp say they would be happy with the construction of the mechanism before testing Pakistan's willingness to cooperate with it.

As for talks on Kashmir, Mr Khan and his delegation members would engage the Indians closely on the human rights-related issues and cross border travel facilities possibly on Wednesday after they meet Kashmiri leaders camping in Delhi. Senior leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chief Yasin Malik have been invited for the meeting on Tuesday evening. Mr .Malik said he would raise the issue of rights violations as also the adverse impact of periodic India-Pakistan aloofness on life in Kashmir.

As it all looks for now issues like people to people contact are least likely to invite bilateral attention. As a result the resolve of the foreign secretaries in January to "simultaneously reopen their respective Consulates-General in Mumbai and Karachi and to facilitate the process" has clearly suffered a huge blow. The chances of this promise being met any time soon look remote.