The meeting marks a significant thawing of relations between the two countries, which have long been marred by disputes over Kashmir and plummeted after the Mumbai attack, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
The United States has been pressuring both countries to resume talks, hoping that reduced tensions between the two sides will help its strategy against militants in Afghanistan and in Pakistan's tribal belt.
Though there is no fixed agenda, a Pakistani Foreign Office official said: "We will pick up the thread from the Sharm El-Sheikh summit meeting between Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.”
A statement from Gilani's office said Pakistan would raise “all core issues” at the talks and urge India to resolve them quickly.
“We want a meaningful engagement,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi later told Aaj News TV. “We want a result-oriented dialogue.”
Leaders of the two countries have met on the sidelines of international conferences since the attacks, but broad engagement with Pakistan remains a sensitive issue in New Delhi because of continuing suspicions that Islamabad has not done enough to rein in extremists operating in Pakistan.
India did not immediately respond to Pakistan's announcement Friday. New Delhi last week offered to resume high-level peace talks with Pakistan, and Friday's statements were the first confirmation Islamabad would take it up. India has indicated that counterterrorism would be high on its agenda.
Kashmir, a Himalayan region split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, is at the heart of decades of bitterness between the two countries. They have fought two wars over control of Kashmir, and a dozen insurgent groups seeking either independence or a merger with Pakistan have been fighting Indian rule there since 1989.
Pakistan wants the resumption of the process of “composite dialogue” which came to a grinding halt after the Mumbai attack. But India has so far offered secretarial-level talks minus the main issue of Kashmir.
If tensions between Pakistan and India ease, it may enable Islamabad to shift some troops away from its border with India to fight Taleban militants on the Afghan border.
Analysts said while no breakthrough on core disputes was likely in the short-term, the renewed engagement between the two sides after more than a year was a good sign. Investment into India has continued apace despite the tensions, and so signs of a detente are unlikely to boost markets. But a slide into conflict would deal a body blow to both economies.
— With input from agencies
