Pak says formulating response to talks offer, prefers CDP

Pakistan said it is in the process of framing a response to India's offer to resume talks but indicated that it would prefer to stick to the established composite dialogue process that was stalled in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan on Sunday said it is in the process of framing a response to India's offer to resume talks but indicated that it would prefer to stick to the established composite dialogue process that was stalled in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

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"We are still in the process of holding internal consultations (on the Indian offer) and have not really formulated a response... It is important to know what we are getting into and the trajectory of the (proposed) talks," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told PTI.

Referring to the stalled composite dialogue process, Basit said: "We already have an established framework and it would not be desirable to reinvent the wheel".

The spokesman made it clear that Pakistan was "not against engagement with India" but said "talks for the sake of talks would have no meaning".

All parleys would have to be "constructive and meaningful," he said.

Basit said Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had suggested to Pakistan's High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik during a meeting on Friday that the two sides should hold their "first round of talks and take it from there".

India has proposed a meeting of the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries to break the stalemate that has existed since the Mumbai attacks, which were carried out by members of the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taeba terror group.