Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao flew to Islamabad along with Home Secretary G.K. Pillai Wednesday for talks with their Pakistani counterparts.

Pakistan on Wednesday released 17 Indian prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" ahead of the talks. The prisoners were handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border crossing near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

The talks between Rao, the Indian foreign secretary, and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir will set the agenda for a meeting between the foreign ministers on July 15, a senior foreign office official in Islamabad said.

"The two foreign secretaries will also discuss other vital issues including ways to boost cooperation in counter-terrorism, peace and security and confidence-building measure," the official said.

All issues are on the table, including Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said in New Delhi. From India's point of view, terror will top the agenda.

During delegation-level discussions, India will press for the speedy trial of seven 26/11 terror attacks suspects in Pakistan, concrete action against Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai carnage, and against those groups based in Pakistan nurturing anti-India agenda.

Ten terrorists held Mumbai hostage for 60 hours from Nov. 26, 2008, killing 166 innocent men, women and children.

Rao is also expected to take up a recent spike in cross-border infiltration and cease-fire violations that are marring the spirit of thaw that followed the summit talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani in Thimphu nearly two months ago.

Singh and Gilani had directed their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to meet and work out modalities of restoring trust between the two countries.

Talks between Rao and Bashir will set the stage for meeting between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad on July 15.

Official sources in New Delhi said India was going into these talks in "an exploratory, not an accusatory way.”

India would also like Pakistan to pursue confidence-building steps like an early meeting of the judicial committee on prisoners, enhanced commercial and economic ties and cross-border trade that will create a better atmosphere for reviving full-scale dialogue in the future, sources said.

India is hoping that the Pakistani side will reaffirm the progress made by the two sides during their composite dialogue 2004-07 and in their back-channel talks on Kashmir that will encourage the two sides to pick up the threads from where they left.

Pillai, the Indian home secretary, is going to Islamabad for a meeting of senior officials of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The foreign secretary-level talks will be followed by a meeting between Home Minister P. Chidamabaram and Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday.

In his meeting with Malik, Chidambaram is likely to press for the voice samples of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

The disclosures made by Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, linking the Mumbai attacks to the LeT operatives in Pakistan, will also figure in the discussions, sources said.

Chidambaram will represent India at the SAARC meeting of home ministers in Islamabad on Saturday.