Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran will travel to Pakistan on a three-day visit from Aug. 31, India's External Affairs Ministry said Monday.

Saran's visit aims at taking stock of the Indo-Pakistan relations in the run-up to the meeting of the foreign ministers of the two South Asian nuclear rivals, and a possible interaction between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf in New York next month.

Saran, during his Islamabad visit, will meet his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Muhammed Khan on Sept. 1 for a wrap-up session of the second round of the Indo-Pakistan composite dialogue process.

The foreign secretaries will assess the progress made during the second round of the dialogue, take stock of the relationship and outline the course to move forward the dialogue process, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Indian External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri in Islamabad on Oct. 4.

There is expectation of a Singh-Musharraf meeting in New York in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, but there is no official word on it as yet.

The second round of the composite dialogue was initiated by foreign secretaries of the two countries on Dec. 27-28 last year in Islamabad, when they discussed two of the subjects of the composite dialogue - peace and security, including confidence- building measures and Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Meetings on the other five subjects under the composite dialogue framework -- Siachen, Tulbul navigation project, Sir Creek, economic and commercial cooperation and promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields have been held since May this year.

Home Secretary-level talks between the two sides on the subject of terrorism and drug trafficking are scheduled for Aug. 29-30.

The two foreign secretaries earlier planned to meet on the sidelines of the SAARC standing committee scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Aug. 17. It was, however, put off due to the assassination of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in Colombo.

Source: Xinhua