ISLAMABAD, May 27: The government told a parliamentary foreign affairs panel on Thursday it was hopeful about progress in peace process with India but was unsure about where the new Indian government would like to pick up the threads in planned dialogue with Pakistan.

Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar said during a briefing given to the Senate standing committee on foreign affairs that Islamabad was heartened by a consensus among major Indian parties for dialogue with Pakistan.

He called President Pervez Musharraf's recent telephone conversations with new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi 'positive and upbeat'.

He said the planned talks between foreign secretaries of the two countries in June would be a continuation of the process agreed with the previous Indian government, which the new Congress-led coalition government has vowed to pursue.

"But this might also be a new beginning," the secretary said, pointing out that the new Indian government had referred only to the 1972 Shimla Agreement as a framework of talks and made no reference to either the 1999 Lahore Declaration, the 2001 Agra summit or last January's Islamabad agreement between President Musharraf and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to resume the peace process.

"So we will see from where they will like to pick up the threads - whether from Shimla, Lahore, Agra or Islamabad," he said. He said Pakistan would keep 'our positive attitude' in pursuing the eight-point 'composite dialogue', which includes talks to settle the Kashmir and Jammu dispute.

The briefing given by several policy specialists on the impact of the Indian elections on Islamabad-Delhi relations at the committee's inaugural meeting was open to the Press. It was presided over by panel chairman and PML Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Syed.

But Mr Khokhar seemed to be reluctant to be swayed by Mr Mushahid's glasnost. He declined to answer some of the questions from the committee members and promised to talk 'more frankly' in closed-door briefings.

Four opposition members of the 13-man committee took part in the proceedings under protest against what one of them, Prof Khurshid Ahmad of the MMA, called the ruling coalition's 'injustice' done to the opposition in giving it less than due representation on all house standing committees.

Mr Mushahid promised to talk to the leader of the house about the opposition's demand for representation on the standing committees in proportion to its 43 members in the 100-seat house. "We have to carry everybody along," he said.

Mr Khokhar said Pakistan was awaiting India's indication of dates for the foreign secretaries' meeting which is due to be preceded by an experts' meeting on nuclear confidence-building measures.

The nuclear CBMs meeting was earlier set for May 25-26 but was put off because of India's preoccupation with the formation of the new government. "We are not suffering from any wild expectations," he said as he referred to the chequered history of India-Pakistan relations, but added: "We are clear with our objectives...and we are hopeful some progress will be made."

SINO-INDIA TIES: The foreign secretary dismissed concern expressed by some members about possible impact of an apparent warming up between India and China on the close Islamabad-Beijing ties.

"Our relationship with China is very solid (and) we have no reason to be concerned....," he said. But he pointed out that Pakistan-China ties must be underpinned by strong economic relations. "China will be a major factor in all our calculations."

SATTAR'S VIEW: Former foreign minister Abdul Sattar said a ground swell of support for detente augured well for Pakistan-India relations but stressed that a normalization between the two countries "cannot endure without a normalization in Kashmir".

"This unique moment provides an unprecedented opportunity to the leaders of the two countries to resolve long-pending problems and open a new chapter of normal good-neighbourly relations... to the mutual benefit of people in both countries," he said.

Others who briefed the committee included Dr Shireen Mazari, director-general of the Institute of Strategic Studies; Prof Khalid Mahmood, a senior research analyst on India at the Institute of Regional Studies; and Dr Lal Khan, an expert on the Indian economy.