WASHINGTON, Feb 11: President Pervez Musharraf is due to arrive in Washington on Tuesday from Boston after spending three days in that university town on a private visit with his family.

The general will fly into Andrews Air Force Base in a chartered plane and will go straight to Blair House, the state guest house where he will be staying. He will meet President George Bush at the White House on Wednesday morning, and the two leaders will briefly address the press before going in for lunch to continue their discussions.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq, who, in the unexplained absence from the Pakistan delegation of Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar is the senior most Foreign Office official accompanying Gen Musharraf, was due to meet Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman at the State Department and Deputy National Security Adviser Steven Hadley on Monday afternoon (Tuesday morning in Pakistan).

The foreign secretary and other senior men in the delegation spent Sunday closeted with ambassador Maleeha Lodhi at the Pakistan embassy, preparing for the Musharraf-Bush talks that are expected to cover all areas of the bilateral relationship, the regional situation and the military campaign in Afghanistan. Details are being finalized of agreements on science and technology and revival of the US-Pakistan defence policy group that are expected to be signed during the Musharraf visit.

INSTITUTIONAL BASIS: Pakistani spokesmen emphasize that Islamabad is concentrating on an effort to build an institutional framework for the US-Pakistan bilateral relationship that can weather both good times and bad. Pakistan wants to move away from the ad-hocism that has often characterized the relationship between the two countries, and revival of the joint defence policy group or some framework like that should be seen as part of this effort.