NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament on Tuesday that his government was taking relations with Pakistan forward and that the second round of India-Pakistan foreign secretary level talks would be held in Islsmbad on Dec 27.

"Technical level meetings on various levels are already under way. The two foreign secretaries are going to meet on Dec 27-28 to initiate next round of the composite dialogue," Dr Singh said in the Lok Sabha.

Dr Singh also briefed the Lok Sabha about his talks with President Gen Pervez Musharraf in New York in September. "We discussed bilateral issues including Jammu and Kashmir. We agreed that possible options for the peaceful settlement of the issue should be explored in a sincere and purposeful manner," he said.

However, he said India has made it clear to Pakistan that it would not agree to any redrawing of boundaries. "I made it clear to President Musharraf that while we are willing to look at various options, we will not agree to any redrawing of boundaries or another partition of the country," Dr Singh said.

"We had also discussed bilateral issues including Jammu and Kashmir. We agreed the possible peaceful negotiated settlement of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to be explored in a sincere spirit and a purposeful manner.

I made it clear to President Musharraf while we are willing to look at various options we would not agree to an redrawing of boundaries or the other partition of our country," he said.

Recalling his discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz in New Delhi on Nov 23, Dr Singh said India intended to pursue the path of cooperation and dialogue with Pakistan "in an atmosphere free of mistrust and terror"

In the Rajya Sabha, Dr Singh had to handle a catalogue of embarrassing querries from the opposition, led by former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha. Responding to Mr Sinha's questions, Dr Singh clarified yet again that "there is no ambiguity in India's stand on the veto power of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

There was an official comment at the weekend that India could consider accepting a non-veto status in the recast UNSC. "Let me remove any doubts, if there are any doubts" Dr Singh said, and added: "There is no ambiguity in our stand. There is no confusion.

At this point all permanent members of the UNSC have veto power. We do not believe there should be any discrimination in the permanent-membership status in the UNSC."

Dr Singh however added that there was "no clarity on what shape the Security Council reforms would eventually take. Let us not pre-judge the outcome. The United Nations is a complex organization and we have to see how this debate on United Nations reform moves forward.

About Mr Sinha's charge that his government had diluted the Vajpayee-Musharraf joint statement of Islamabad, Dr Singh said: "I do not share the perception of any dilution of India's stance as articulated in the January 6th, 2004 joint statement of President Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee."

Dr Singh said that he had emphasized to President Musharraf the criticality of his fulfilling the reassurance of Jan 6, 2004, that any territory under Pakistan's control would not be used to support terrorism in any manner. "If this does not happen, all other confidence building measures would have no meaning," Dr Singh declared.

Asked if the Prime Minister had discussed US arms supply to Pakistan with US President George Bush in New York, Dr Singh said that he had not discussed this issue with the US President, but the matter was taken up by the Indian government with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the latter's recent visit to India.