India and Pakistan should continue their dialogue: US official

"They (India and Pakistan) are both friends and allies of the United States. It is in our interest to see the kind of substantive exchanges and dialogue that is occurring at a high level between the two countries now on a regular basis," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news briefing.

"That is very encouraging. We understand that there are difficult issues that will over time, you know, be a subject of that ongoing dialogue. But you know, we can certainly continue as we always have to encourage India to sit down, talk at high-levels, engage in the issues that have created tensions between the two countries in the past," he said in response to a question.

The US will like to see both the countries to cooperate together along with others in the region to combat terrorism, the official said, adding the pace of these steps are to be decided by New Delhi and Islamabad.