Indian Congress Party President Sonia to visit Pakistan

Indian Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi will visit Pakistan soon in response to the invitation extended by President Pervez Musharraf.

"He (Singh) told me that Mrs Gandhi has accepted President Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan," Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said after meeting with Indian

External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh on the sidelines of a regional conference in Qingdao, China, on Tuesday.

Musharraf invited Gandhi for a visit during his telephone talk with her soon after Congress-led coalition took over power.

India's leading English newspaper the Hindu quoted Kasuri as saying that Singh emphasized the need for encouraging foreign secretaries of both countries to move forward with peace process.

"We thought that their successful meeting would help the two foreign ministers to proceed tackling the issues with greater depth and more successfully," he said.

Under the roadmap agreed by the two countries, the foreign secretaries would meet in New Delhi on June 27-28 followed by a meeting between foreign ministers in August.

Kasuri said that Tuesday's meeting with Singh was held in a cordial atmosphere and all issues including Kashmir came under discussion.

Source: Xinhua