With Pakistan indicating that President Musharraf might not be attending the New Delhi SAARC Summit, India has invited Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the April 3-4 meet.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived here on a two-day visit, said he carried an invitation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Aziz to attend the summit of the eight-nation regional grouping.
Mukherjee had in November said that he would travel to Islamabad to extend the invitation to Musharraf.
However, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri indicated on Thursday that the President may not go to New Delhi as Pakistan wanted Singh to visit Islamabad first. Kasuri had said that Musharraf had already visited India in 2005 and it was Singh's turn to make a reciprocal visit.
The decision to invite Aziz for the Summit appears to have been taken at the last minute by India.
India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to give political push to their dialogue process as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met President Pervez Musharraf and discussed the entire gamut of bilateral ties, including "difficult" issues of terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir.
Mukherjee, who arrived in Islamabad earlier in the day, held discussions with Musharraf for about 70 minutes during which they reviewed the progress made in the bilateral relations and ways to move forward.
"Entire range of India-Pakistan relationship was discussed... all issues were discussed, including difficult ones, such as settlement of outstanding disputes, terrorism and J and K," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told journalists after the meeting.
Sarna said Mukherjee and Musharraf were gratified to know the progress that has been made on various issues and reviewed those issues on which progress needs to be made.
The two discussed how to move this relationship forward from this point, he said. "They expressed their determination to continue to give political impetus to the discussions and carry them forward," Sarna said.
Mukherjee's meeting with Musharraf came just a few hours ahead of his talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri on the entire range of bilateral ties.
Terrorism and J&K issues are set to dominate the talks during which the third round of composite dialogue will be reviewed.
The Indian side will seek to know from Pakistan what steps it has taken to dismantle the terror infrastructure and end infiltration after being provided with "pin-pointed" evidence two months back.
Setting up of a joint consultative mechanism on J and K for issues like tourism, health and ecology is also expected to figure in the talks.
