NEW DELHI, June 7: Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh will visit Islamabad in July to attend Saarc ministerial meeting, the Indian foreign ministry announced on Monday.

But there is a strong possibility, after Natwar Singh was named to represent India at the funeral of former US president Ronald Reagan, that he would meet his Pakistan counterpart, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, in Washington as early as this week.

While Natwar Singh's travel plan to Washington was officially announced in New Delhi, Pakistani diplomats said their representative at the funeral could be anybody, from Mr Kasuri to someone even more senior.

Mr Singh in any case is scheduled to meet Mr Kasuri on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in China on June 21-22. Officially though, the Saarc ministerial meeting on July 20 was all that New Delhi would formally confirm as the likely date for their meeting.

"The ministerial meeting is part of the Saarc calendar and the external affairs minister is expected to attend it," a foreign ministry spokesman said.