ISLAMABAD, Sept 11 Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao would meet in New York later this month before the meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said here on Friday.

He was briefing reporters after a meeting between Mr Bashir and Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal at the Foreign Office.

No date has been finalised yet.

According to sources, both meetings are expected to take place between Sept 20 and Sept 28 when both sides would be in New York for the United Nations General Assembly session.

Diplomats said Mr Bashir had sought the meeting with the Indian envoy for renewing an invitation extended earlier to the Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to undertake a visit to Islamabad for the foreign secretaries' talks.

Pakistan had initially invited Ms Rao to Islamabad last month shortly after she succeeded Mr Shiv Shankar Menon as foreign secretary.

Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh had decided in July, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt, that their foreign secretaries would meet as frequently as required before the foreign ministers' talks.

However, the foreign secretaries meeting could not be held because of stiff opposition in India and their reluctance to travel to Islamabad.

“The foreign secretary (Mr Bashir) recalled that the prime ministers of Pakistan and India, in their meeting at Sharm El Sheikh on July 16, had agreed that dialogue is the only way forward,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office said.

Mr Bashir also highlighted the importance of these engagements for moving relations forward. India has already indicated that during the secretaries' talks in New York, it would focus on terrorism and the action taken by Pakistan against the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks and the terror infrastructure, but Pakistan would attempt to discuss normalisation of ties, particularly the resumption of the composite dialogue.

Indian protest rejected

The Foreign Office rejected India's assertion that Jammu and Kashmir was its integral part and rebuffed its protest over the Gilgit-Baltistan self-governance package.

Islamabad also rejected New Delhi's protest over the proposed Bunji Dam.

Indian Deputy High Commissioner Rahul Kulshreshth was called to the Foreign Office on Friday and informed about Pakistan's position.

“Pakistan rejects the Indian protest as the government of India has no locus standi in the matter,” Director General of South Asia desk Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi, told the Indian deputy high commissioner.

AFP adds India earlier lodged a protest against plans by Islamabad to build the multi-billion-dollar Bunji dam.

India and Pakistan remain at odds over the construction of the Tulbul dam in occupied Kashmir that is fed by the waters of the Jhelum river.

Pakistan has objected to the dam's design, saying it violates the provisions of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which governs sharing of common river waters, asserting Islamabad would be deprived of its rightful share from the Jhelum river.