NEW DELHI, Feb 26: The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, who hadn’t seen each other after the Mumbai attacks, met in Colombo on Thursday and while Islamabad said the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere, New Delhi firmly rejected its proposal to resume their Composite Dialogue, indicating that the healing would take more time, quite possibly at least three months when Indian elections are due to be over.

Pakistan conveyed its sense of the meeting between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and India’s Shivshankar Menon in a press release circulated by its mission in New Delhi. The Indian interpretation came through a dispatch by Press Trust of India. It was based on a press briefing by Mr Menon. Since Mr Bashir’s version contained a specific suggestion to resume the stalled talks on Kashmir, it may be surmised he had audiences in Washington in mind as well.

The foreign secretaries are representing their countries at the two-day session of the Saarc standing committee. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik, who had met Mr Menon here last week, was present at Thursday’s talks, an indication that substantial issues may have been discussed.

This first meeting of the foreign secretaries came a day after India formally charged dozens of Pakistanis among the plotters for the terror attacks, PTI said.

Mr Menon promptly rejected Mr Bashir’s suggestion for resumption of Composite Dialogue, saying Islamabad should first take credible steps to end terrorism.

According to PTI, Mr Menon stressed that India and Pakistan had entered entirely a “new phase of relations” as the Mumbai attacks had changed the situation.

“Bashir stressed the need for resuming the composite dialogue but Menon made it known that it could happen only after India sees credible action by Pakistan to dismantle terror infrastructure,” PTI said.“We have paused the Composite Dialogue and official talks have been paused,” Mr Menon told reporters after the meeting.

“As far as resumption of Composite Dialogue is concerned, we have to see whether there is a real movement forward on (ending) terrorism. Our goal is to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attack to justice,” he said.Noting that India wanted to see perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to be brought to justice, Mr Menon referred to the 30 questions sent by Pakistan in response to India’s dossier, and said initial steps were “positive”.

The Pakistan version of the talks said the foreign secretaries “exchanged views on broader issues of regional cooperation and agreed to continue their efforts to promote cooperation under the Saarc auspices.”

The two officials “also discussed various aspects of the bilateral relations,” said Pakistan’s press note.

Mr Bashir “underscored the importance that Pakistan attaches to preserving the gains made in the Composite Dialogue process. He reiterated the need to resume the process as soon as possible with a view to promoting substantive engagement on all issues, including Kashmir, for establishing friendly and good neighbourly relations”.

The press note said Mr Menon informed Mr Bashir “that India would be responding soon to the queries raised by Pakistan in the context of the Mumbai incident.”