NEW DELHI, Sept 1: Indian Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh met a group of visiting Pakistani parliamentarians on Wednesday and assured them that the Kashmir issue would be taken up for serious discussion with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri next week.

The MPs, who met Mr Singh for an informal exchange of views at his British-built "South Block" office here, told Dawn they had been come out reassured there were no hiccups awaiting the widely watched talks with the Pakistan foreign minister scheduled on Sunday and Monday.

"Kashmir is going to be very much on the table. Don't worry about any hiccups. There won't be any. The dialogue will continue in its earnest quest for solutions," Mr Singh was quoted as telling the delegation, which included former foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan and Pakistan People Party's Ms Sherry Rehman.

Two MMA representatives were also part of a 15-member team that met the Indian foreign minister. They had earlier discussed issues of easing visa restrictions with Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

Mr Singh had apparently read the minds of the visitors as he kicked off the talks with his comments on Kashmir. "That disarmed everyone and set the tone for a very positive meeting," one MP confided on condition of anonymity.

The visitors, who have been meeting Indian parliamentarians as part of a study group to exchange views on experiences in the running of democracy in their countries, were anxious to hear first hand from Mr Singh about India's approach to the talks with Mr Khursheed.

Their fears were fuelled by a spate of adverse media reports about the arriving talks and Tuesday's comments by India's National Security Adviser Jyotindra Nath Dixit, who said the Kashmir should not hold other issues hostage.

Both Ms Rehman and Mr Gohar were particularly apprehensive over comments in The Hindustan Times earlier this week. The newspaper's defence columnist Brahma Chellaney wrote: "Nothing can be worse than to mistake tactics for strategy. And nothing is more self-injurious than to treat a process as an end in itself.

If Pakistan is unwilling to give up cross-border terrorism and its blinkered approach of holding the larger relationship hostage to a "final settlement" of Kashmir, India should not accept a timetable for a new cycle of talks. After all, talks can't be continued for talks' sake."

The fact that Mr Dixit and Mr Chellaney used similar descriptions for Kashmir, warning against the key issue edging out other matters in the composite dialogue so as to make them hostage to it, was further seen as a negative signal by the MPs.

Comments by India Today on the issue did not appear to help matters much, the MPs said. "The Pakistan peace process could be in jeopardy," it warned. "The prime minister (Manmohan Singh) is backing it but credible reports that the Pakistan Army is behind heightened infiltration in Kashmir has South Block in a fix," it reported.

On Tuesday, in their meetings with media represtatives, the MPs had offered clues to what their parties expected from the talks. While Mr Gohar Ayub Khan said he would be satisified with some movement on the reduction of military forces from Siachen and also in the the Valley, an improvement in tracking and checking human rigths violations in Kashmir would be a positive gesture.

Ms Rehman, speaking for the PPP said an India-China model used for their border talks could be creatively applied for India- Pakistan talks on Kashmir. Neither side has to abandon its core claims, while making progress in the composite dialogue in a structured way while marking tangible progress in every area of bilateral ties, including Kashmir, she declared.