The meeting between Pakistani foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar and his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran to discuss the issues of peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir will now be held on December 27-28, a foreign ministry statement said.

"The re-scheduling of the dates has been done at the request of the government of India," it said.

The statement came two days after foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan announced here that the top foreign ministry officials of Pakistan and India had agreed to meet in Islamabad on December 23-24 to review progress on the peace process.

India and Pakistan have been engaged in a peace dialogue since January, with officials and politicians discussing various major sticking points. The first round of the talks was completed in September.

The December meeting will look at overall progress on key issues such as confidence-building measures between the two countries, and the disputed region of Kashmir.

The two countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, but in April last year then-Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee started the current peace process by offering a "hand of friendship" to Pakistan.

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