ISLAMABAD, May 20: He is a man of integrity as well as great intelligence and a moderate who favours promotion of cooperation between Pakistan and India. This is how India's 13th Prime Minister designate Manmohan Singh is broadly viewed in Pakistan's foreign policy circles.

Top Pakistani diplomats and officials, serving and retired, who have been associated with Singh in the past, have only positive recollections of him. They recall Singh as a leader who focused mainly on India's economic or financial issues and avoided political rhetoric.

"He never spoke negatively about Pakistan and in fact I never heard him talking on disputes between Pakistan and India, he merely kept himself to economic and financial matters," recalls Pakistan's former foreign minister Abdul Sattar who was Pakistan's High Commissioner in New Delhi in 1991 when Singh became the Finance minister.

"He is a man who always maintained an honourable distinction between the official and the personal," notes Mr Sattar, pointing to the fact that Singh had refused to use his official car for his personal use.

The overriding view about the new Indian Prime Minister in Islamabad is that he would speak with a moderate voice and focus on India's own priorities. "He was never known to be pro-US, pro-Russia, pro-West, or pro-World Bank," says a retired Pakistani diplomat who sees Singh as a thorough gentleman and a competent professional.

The Ox-bridge educated Singh was a contemporary of Pakistan's former finance minister, Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq. Both men as finance ministers of their respective countries had discussions on economic exchanges and cooperation between Pakistan and India.

Singh is credited for turning around the Indian economy through dynamic reforms as Finance Minister in Narasimha Rao's government of the nineties. Manmohan Singh met President General Pervez Musharraf in July 2001.

He had accompanied the Congress leader Sonia Gandhi along with Natwar Singh, head of the Congress party's Foreign affairs relations wing, during her call-on President Musharraf before the Agra Summit.

Diplomats who were present on the occasion recall that Singh apart from the initial exchange of pleasantries remained quiet throughout the meeting. Sonia and Natwar did all the talking.

"They had a good conversation with President Musharraf and were very supportive of the dialogue and hoped that the Agra Summit would succeed," recounts one insider.

"He is a very affable, down-to-earth person who is widely respected and somebody with whom Pakistan could do business," is how one serving Pakistani diplomat described Singh.

On the Pakistan-India front it is believed that Singh will respond positively to the desire on both sides to solve disputes between the two countries.

"On foreign policy matters he is likely to play a secondary role in consultation with Sonia Gandhi and other Congress party leaders and what is perceived by the Indian establishment," pointed out a retired Pakistani career diplomat who has served thrice in India.

Although recognizing that the Indian establishment plays a key role in determining the direction of India-Pakistan policy, one former diplomat says, "the future is full of hope" with a level- headed man like Manmohan Singh as India's premier.

However, another diplomat disputes this view, saying Manmohan Singh cannot be moderate in terms of Pakistan-India policy. The argument advanced is that while Singh may be "very important" for India domestically at a time when for the downtrodden India has not been shinning, there is little he can do independently on India's policy towards Pakistan.

"It will be the view of the Indian foreign policy establishment and veterans like Natwar Singh and J.N. Dixit who advised Rajiv Gandhi on Pakistan-India policy, that will prevail," maintained a former Pakistani foreign secretary.

Endorsing the view that Singh will not be the man calling the shots on India's foreign policy, a political observer notes: "He is somebody who will not meddle too much in foreign affairs and will be guided exclusively by the Congress leaders and the establishment on foreign policy matters."

Irked by the euphoria in Pakistan, a widely respected retired diplomat who served as Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York says: "Lets take things on the face value and see what Mr Dixit said just a few days ago.... he said there can be no alienation on Kashmir and talked of adjustments on the Line of Control." His point being that Mr Dixit's statement ought to dampen all expectations on Kashmir.

"There is a lot of euphoria in Pakistan because the dialogue has started, and because of the cricket people have just gone crazy but the fact remains that on Kashmir there is no change in India's position," was a more cynical view.

The mild-mannered Singh, reputed to be a man of few words, will now be compelled to break his silence on foreign policy issues due to the position he now holds. More so in the wake of the widely hailed peace initiatives taken by the outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for improving ties with Pakistan.

Manmohan Singh made his first 'peace offering' to Pakistan at a press conference on Thursday, a day after being appointed the Prime Minister. He sought "friendly relations" with Pakistan to make friction between the two nuclear-armed neighbours "a thing of the past".

However, he underlined that all outstanding issues between the two countries should be resolved without "sacrificing our national security." Manmohan Singh, 71, has the rare distinction of becoming India's first Sikh prime minister and also the first non-Hindu to be elevated to this position.