With the chargesheet on the Mumbai blasts case already filed, sources said, India has indicated its willingness to hold a meeting as early as this month to share the evidence. While Pakistan is yet to respond, India is open to being flexible with dates but wants the meeting at least before the Foreign Secretaries meet to start the fourth round of the Composite Dialogue in March.

The two sides had agreed last November that the three-member group on each side will be headed by Additional Secretaries but the other two members were undecided. While Pakistan is still to resolve its team composition, the Indian side will be headed by K C Singh, Additional Secretary in the MEA, and will have L C Goyal, Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry, along with an IB official as its other members.

It’s learnt that a team of officials from different agencies will form an internal group to assist the members of this terror mechanism to share evidence with Pakistan.

Hoping that Pakistan, too, hands over its team composition, Mukherjee will urge Islamabad to respond to evidence already passed on two months ago and also convene an early meeting of the group. India is clear that progress on terror remains crucial to the peace process. Pakistan’s willingness to deliver through this mechanism, sources said, will go a long way in boosting trust levels.

The two sides had agreed to set up this mechanism when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time after the Mumbai blasts in Havana last September.

The External Affairs Minister, who arrives here tomorrow, will first meet Musharraf, then Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz in the afternoon followed by a bilateral meeting with counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. Both foreign ministers will use the meeting to review the progress made on all issues including Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek in the last round of the Composite Dialogue.

Mukherjee is expected to raise Siachen with Musharraf as he was the one who had indicated, in New Delhi two tears ago, that authentication of troop positions shouldn’t be a problem. India will also work on Pakistan to ease the current restrictive visa regime. New Delhi had suggested discussions on waiving all police-reporting requirements and restrictions on cities but Islamabad isn’t too warm to the idea.