The top diplomats of Pakistan and India will meet for talks in New Delhi on Feb. 25, the Pakistani prime minister's office said on Friday.

India suspended a peace process with Pakistan after the Indian city of Mumbai was attacked in November 2008.

The United States has been urging the two countries to resume engagement to help stabilise the region, especially Afghanistan, where thousand of troops occupy for years.

Indian officials say they offered Pakistan open-ended talks on all issues affecting peace and security, "emphasising counter-terrorism".

Pakistan has been pushing for the resumption of the full peace process, which centred on a composite dialogue, covering all problems, including their decades old dispute over the divided Kashmir region.

The two countries' top foreign ministry officials, their foreign secretaries, would meet in New Delhi on Feb. 25, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office said in a statement.

"(The) Pakistan side should raise all the core issues and impress upon India the need for the expeditious resolution through resumption of composite dialogue," it said.

"The prime minister directed the foreign secretary ... that his talks with his Indian counterpart should be result-oriented and meaningful," it said.

The neighbours have fought three wars since securing independence in 1947, two of them over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in part.


Reuters