PM Nawaz Sharif says he's hopeful of meeting his Indian counterparrt

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said he was looking forward to his meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh as he wanted to re-continue his efforts to improve bilateral ties between both the countries from the point they discontinued during his last regime.

"I will be very happy to meet him (Singh) and we hope to pick up the threads from where we left in 1999," Sharif told reporters inside the UN building in New York.

Sharif was referring to his historic meeting with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who travelled to Lahore by bus in 1999 for bilateral talks.

He spoke after emerging from a meeting held adjacent to a room where External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid was holding talks with a Palestinian delegation.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Singh confirmed he would meet Sharif on the margins of the UN General Assembly.