The moderate wing of Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance said Monday it will meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraff when he visits New Delhi this weekend, local media reported.
The All Party Hurriyat Conference has been pushing for its inclusion in a formal peace process between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan aimed at ending the long festering dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The Hurriyat said it would discuss Tuesday in Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir, its strategy for the meeting with the Pakistani president, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Musharraf is coming to New Delhi to watch the final one-day cricket match of a series between the two countries and meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to push forward the peace process.
"We will be meeting Musharraf on April 16. This has been verbally communicated to us," the chairman of the moderate wing, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, told the Press Trust of India. It gave no further details.
Both the moderate and hard-line factions of Hurriyat have welcomed the peace process launched in January 2004 between the neighbours which have fought three wars, two over divided Kashmir that both claim in full.
But separatist leaders say at some point they must be included in the discussions on Kashmir's future in a "triangular dialogue." India, however, wants a bilateral solution while Pakistan wants the separatists' involvement.
Indian security forces have been fighting since 1989 to suppress a deadly revolt against New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir.
The Pakistani president said on the weekend he was more interested in discussing the future of Kashmir with Indian leaders than being a spectator at the cricket game set for Sunday.
Musharraf's trip will just come just over a week after the launch of a historic bus service linking the Indian and Pakistan zones of Kashmir.
Musharraf has said the bus service cannot resolve the Kashmir issue but is a "step towards confidence building".
Meanwhile, The Hindu newspaper quoted Farooq as saying he wants to take the bus to meet Kashmiri leaders in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
"A sincere political dialogue should start now between the political leaders on both sides ... and a visit by Hurriyat leaders would go a long way in the convergence of ideas for an amicable solution," he said.
India invited Musharraf to attend one of the matches on Pakistan's first full tour of India in six years after the Pakistani leader said he wanted to watch a cricket match in India.
Musharraf's visit to India will be the first since a summit in the northern city of Agra in 2001 with then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee collapsed over Kashmir dispute.