The focus of the meeting of two top diplomats would be confidence building measures to take the peace process forward. They were likely to review the dialogue process apart from preparing the ground for a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in New Delhi next month.

Thursday's meeting is a part of resumption of the dialogue process initiated by both India and Pakistan in Thimphu on sidelines of the SAARC Summit in April. India's Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna had earlier said that talks between two foreign secretaries would pave the way for normalisation of relations.

Krishna had made it clear that the talks would focus on terrorism, notwithstanding Islamabad's assertion that the two top diplomats would not be discussing the issue of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Of the two rounds of talks, one would focus on the issues of Jammu & Kashmir and the second would be on promotion of friendly exchanges and confidence building measures across the line of control.

Rao was also likely to share the findings of National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge-sheet in the Samjhauta Express train blast case of 2007.