India's foreign secretary Shyam Saran leaves for Islamabad on a three-day visit Wednesday to conclude the second round of the composite dialogue process and search for a new framework for continuing the peace talks between the countries.

Besides reviewing the entire bilateral relations, Saran will discuss with his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan the case of Sarabjit Singh, who is facing execution in Pakistan on charges of bomb blasts in the 1990s, and the issue of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails.

The discussion between the two foreign secretaries will set the stage for the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 14. "We will discuss the issue of prisoners. It's a humanitarian issue," Saran told Indo- Asian News Service (IANS) Wednesday.

"All bilateral issues will be discussed. Now that the second round of composite dialogue process is ending, we will have to explore the form under which future dialogue will be conducted," Saran added.

"We will have to decide whether the composite dialogue will still need to be carried on in the future and also discuss the precise mandate of the Joint Commission which will meet sometime later this year," he added.

The meeting of the joint commission will take place after over a decade. The commission, as it operated in the 1980s, had both economic as well as trade and also cultural and people-to-people exchanges in its ambit.

The foreign secretaries had initiated the second round on Dec. 27-28, 2004 in Islamabad during which they had discussed two subjects of the dialogue process: peace and security, including confidence building measures, and the India-controlled Kashmir.

Meetings on the other five subjects of the dialogue process: Siachen, Tulbul navigation project, Sir Creek, economic and commercial cooperation, and the promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields have already taken place. Foreign ministers of the two countries would subsequently meet in Islamabad on Oct. 4.

Source: Xinhua