The two leaders are expected to review the status of the ongoing dialogue and discuss the thorny dispute of Kashmir, foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said.

"We hope that they will be able to give a firm direction to their negotiators for further progress," he said.

Musharraf and Singh are to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session this week, their first since the change of government in India in May.

"They would go into substance and I am sure they would review the status of the composite dialogue and they would like to focus on the Kashmir issue," the spokesman said.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of progress in the Kashmir dispute.

Progress in the dialogue, particularly on the "key issue of Jammu and Kashmir has been sluggish, we need to accelerate it." he said.

"I am sure that when President Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meet in New York, they would discuss this aspect; how to add substance to the dialogue that we have started."

The spokesman said Pakistan wants the dialogue on Kashmir to be "result- oriented" and stressed the need to build up the momentum.

"There are no deadlines, we understand the complexity of the issue, we know that you need a lot of time to discuss this.

"But this should not be an endless process, this should not be an infinite process," Khan added.

Foreign ministers of the two countries earlier this month held inconclusive talks on the Kashmir dispute, though both sides jointly expressed the hope the dialogue would lead to a resolution.

Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India, has been the cause of two of their three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.

A separatist insurgency in the Muslim-dominated Indian zone has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989. New Delhi has accused Islamabad of supporting the militants, while Pakistan says it only gives political, diplomatic and moral support to a "legitimate freedom struggle."

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