NEW YORK, Sept 22: The United States was looking forward to the first meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders in New York later this week, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.

The official also listed the common 'goal of wrapping up the Dr A.Q. Khan network and stopping proliferation,' as one of the subjects that were on the US agenda for talks with President Pervez Musharraf.

Other subjects included the long-term process of building democratic institutions in Pakistan and the US support for economic reform and growth of Pakistan, he added.

"(But) the overriding theme is that the US has the long-term commitment to Pakistan that needs to succeed on all these fronts with us," he said. About Pakistan-India talks, the White House official said that President Bush was 'always interested in hearing how things are going on the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan'.

The official, who was briefing journalists at a camp office in New York on Mr Bush's talks with South Asian leaders, disagreed with the impression that the change of government in New Delhi had slowed the peace process.

"The composite dialogue by all accounts is going quite well under this new (Indian) government," said the official. The Singh government, he said, was 'continuing with the progress by the previous Vajpayee government'.

The White House aide noted that the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers had already met and now and Prime Minister Singh and President Musharraf were going to meet. He said the trilateral meeting of the US, Pakistani and Afghan leaders on Tuesday was held 'basically to talk about Afghan elections and reaffirm support'.

The meeting between President Bush and President Musharraf, he said, demonstrated that 'the US partnership with Pakistan and our commitment to Pakistan's success is a long-term commitment'.

President Musharraf, he recalled, made a critical decision in the early days after Sept 11 to side with the US in combating global terror. "He has since stepped up Pakistan's efforts to root-out Al Qaeda and Taliban elements along the border with Afghanistan and South Waziristan." The tribal region, he said, was largely untouched for over a century and 'progress on that effort' was an important topic for the two leaders.