Menon meets Gilani ahead of India, Pak PM's meeting

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon held several rounds of meetings on Wednesday with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir and met Gilani late last night to prepare the ground for the meeting of the two principals.

After the meetings, Menon said the "talks are continuing", indicating some forward movement.

"There is no way but dialogue to deal with issues either to take the relations forward or to address issues that divide us," he said.

Menon, however, said: "we have had difficult issues in the past and we still have difficult issues to address".

Describing India's relations with Pakistan as "stressed", Menon told reporters that both sides know that there is a problem which has to be dealt with.

Menon said India has made it clear to Pakistan that it has to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice and take credible steps to dismantle terror infrastructure on its territory.

Singh-Gilani meeting is a follow up of the discussions the Indian leader had with President Asif Ali Zardari in Russia last month when a stern message was given to Pakistan that it will have to stop terror emanating from its soil directed against India.