India's Natwar Singh, on his first visit to Pakistan as foreign minister, met his counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri for 75 minutes on the sidelines of a regional economic summit.

It was their third meeting since Singh took office in India's new government in May, after Sonia Gandhi's Congress party unseated Hindu nationalist Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had kickstarted the fledgling peace efforts last year.

Singh and Kasuri reviewed progress in nascent peace moves since President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee agreed in January to resume stalled dialogue.

"The process begun in January will be taken forward," Singh told reporters after the talks. Singh will meet Musharraf on Friday.

After talks with Kasuri, the Indian foreign minister met Pakistan's Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat, who had declared Pakistan's commitment to peace with India as he opened the South Asia foreign ministers' summit a day earlier.

Singh and Kasuri discussed a proposed bus service linking the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled zones of Kashmir, militant infiltration across Kashmir's de-facto border, high commission (embassy) staffing levels, and reopening consulates in Bombay and New Delhi.

Also raised were India's construction of a dam on the Jhelum river, which starts in Indian-ruled Kashmir but feeds Pakistan, and a disputed southern border area.

"We also discussed cross-border terrorism and the infiltration issue with Pakistan," Singh said, referring to the passage of Islamic rebels over the Line of Control into Indian-ruled Kashmir, where they have been waging a brutal insurgency since 1989.

The two ministers will meet again in New Delhi for direct talks on September 5 and 6, a postponement of the original August 25 date.

Asked whether Pakistani complaints on the conventional arms imbalance were discussed Singh replied: "We are looking for a solution."

"We discussed all issues between India and Pakistan and when we will meet in New Delhi we will speak more about it," he said.

Kasuri said "all issues of concern" to Pakistan and India were discussed but refused to elaborate.

"We spoke on a large number of issues and my lips are sealed," he told a press conference later.

Dialogue between Pakistan and India was reborn after a 30-month hiatus at an earlier regional summit in Islamabad in January, when Musharraf and Vajpayee struck a landmark agreement to restart talks on all issues including Kashmir.

Since then the South Asian neighbours have held two rounds of talks on confidence-building measures and Kashmir, which resulted in a joint pledge to "continue the sustained and serious dialogue to find a peaceful, negotiated final settlement" of the 56-year-old dispute.

Singh vowed on his arrival in Islamabad Monday to "take the peace process further," saying he had brought "a message of goodwill" from the Indian government.

Six other rounds of talks have been scheduled from July 28, starting with two days of talks in Islamabad on the Jhelum dam.

Three rounds of talks are slated for the first week of August in New Delhi, followed by talks on terrorism and drug trafficking in Islamabad August 10 to 11 and economic talks on August 11-12.

Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in full by both, caused two of their three wars and nearly triggered a fourth conflict in 2002.

Relations began to thaw in April last year after Vajpayee's offer of dialogue and both countries embarked on reciprocal confidence-building measures.

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