Nawaz looking forward to meeting Manmohan in New York

Prime Minister says he will be happy to meet his counterpart, pickup from where he left off in 1999.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that he looked forward to meeting his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.

"I will be very happy to meet him and we hope to pick up the threads from where we left in 1999," the prime minister said.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed that he will meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, after raised tensions between the neighbours.

"During my visit to New York, I... look forward to bilateral meetings with the leaders of some of our neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan," Singh said in a statement before leaving for the United States.

The two are scheduled to meet at the breakfast table on September 29.

The meeting had been in jeopardy after five Indian soldiers were killed in August along the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir, an ambush which Delhi blamed on the Pakistan army.

Islamabad denied any responsibility for the ambush, which sparked weeks of tensions and deadly military skirmishes between the neighbours over the Himalayan territory, which both countries control in part but claim in full.

Since winning an election in May, Nawaz has been vocal in his desire for better relations with India, but the recent flare-ups along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir have overshadowed the prospects.

The meeting, which local media have said is expected to take place on the weekend, raises hopes of improved relations, including a resumption of stalled peace talks.

A deadly flare-up along the LoC in January brought a halt to official peace talks that had only just resumed.

Discussions were suspended for three years after the 2008 attacks in Mumbai which killed 166 people.