India | Updated Jul 16, 2009 at 12:25pm IST

Manmohan Singh, Gilani to meet today

Press Trust Of India

Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt): India appears to be seeing signs of thaw in relationship with Pakistan as Prime Ministers of the two countries meet in Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday to review progress on Islamabad's actions to punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh will be meeting on the sidelines of the NAM Summit.

Foreign Secretaries of the two countries on Wednesday discussed a whole range of issues including the detention and release of Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Mohammed Hafeez Saeed, believed to be the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir talked of a "tall order" after his 90-minute meeting with his counterpart Shivshankar Menon, shortly after the Indian official landed from Paris.

Pakistan on Wednesday expressed some optimism over the direction of the talks.

"There has recently been some forward movement in our relations with India," Gilani told participants at the summit.

"We hope to sustain this momentum and move towards comprehensive engagement. We believe durable peace in South Asia is achievable," he added.

Peace "will be facilitated by the resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir," Gilani said.

India, along with host Egypt, is one of the founding members of the NAM, the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations, aimed at giving a voice to the developing world.

Founded in 1955, NAM's 118 member states represent around 56 percent of the global population. NAM states consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

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