ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: A scheduled meeting in New York later this month between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be an 'important watershed' in their relations, according to Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan.

The spokesman was asked at his weekly press briefing here on Monday if the proposed meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York could achieve 'a breakthrough?'

The spokesman hesitated to say anything about the outcome of the meeting which would be the first between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh and said that one should not speculate about the outcome (at this stage).

But, he emphasized: "This is the first time that the two leaders would meet and let's hope for the best." However, he pointed out that the meeting would follow 'a very important meeting' that the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India had held in New Delhi last month.

The ministers had held concluding talks in the light of the final round of a series of bilateral negotiations that the foreign secretaries and senior officials had held earlier this summer on an eight-point agenda which included Jammu and Kashmir, national security, nuclear issue and peace in the region and the military standoff on Siachen glacier.

When asked for comments on the widely reported meetings in recent days and weeks between Pakistan National Security Council Secretary Tariq Aziz and his Indian counterpart J.N. Dixit, the spokesman avoided any categorical answer, neither denying nor confirming the reports, saying he "had no read out on it".

In response to questions, the spokesman said that over the next six months or so, the New York meeting between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh would be followed by a visit to India in December by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as current Saarc chairman and a meting between the two premiers on the sidelines of the next Saarc summit in Dhaka in January.

The media in India and Pakistan have reported that the two key officers concerned with national security issues held more than one meeting outside the public gaze, apparently preparing ground for the maiden but 'very important' meeting on Sept 22 or around that date in New York on Kashmir issue.

The spokesman had nothing new to say on India's refusal to accept Pakistan's reported suggestion for behind-the-scene talks on Kashmir at a higher plane between senior representatives of the two countries.

Answering another question, the spokesman said "yes, we are unifocal" on the very important and central issue of Jammu and Kashmir because Pakistan believed that if the Kashmir issue was resolved through serious and sustained dialogue, then other subsidiary issues would be easier to resolve.

He rejected India's oft-repeated allegations against Pakistan of cross-border terrorism and insisted that the allegations were a cover to shield Indian's own human rights violations in occupied Kashmir.

Mr Khan maintained that Pakistan was keen to pursue the dialogue in which the two sides had recently also invested a lot of hard work in order to resolve all important issues. He urged India to close an unwanted match of allegations against each other and help encourage the peace process in the sub-continent.