Alluding to the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement, the Pakistani envoy said both sides had acknowledged that 'dialogue is the only way forward to discuss all the outstanding issues.'

India is, however, not convinced by Pakistan's claims of action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has made it clear many a time that a meaningful dialogue will not be possible without concrete action by Islamabad against the Mumbai attackers and the larger anti-India terror infrastructure.

In a message underscoring its increasing exasperation at the lack of credible anti-terror action by Pakistan, New Delhi has put on hold a planned meeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries before the foreign ministers of the two countries meet in New York later this month.

Pakistan has invited Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to Islamabad, but New Delhi has not responded.

The prime ministers of the two countries had agreed in Sharm el-Sheikh that the foreign secretaries would meet as frequently as possible before External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna meets his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in the last week of September.