Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, during his visit here this week, had extended an invitation to Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan and it had been accepted.

If the visit takes place, it would be the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister to Pakistan since his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee undertook a bus journey to Lahore in search of peace in February 1999.

Vajpayee had visited Islamabad in January, but that was to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.

Referring to his talks with Aziz, Manmohan Singh said India-Pakistan relations were "moving forward".

To a question about Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion that Congress party president Sonia Gandhi be involved in the ongoing peace process between the two countries, he noted that Gandhi was not only the Congress president but also the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

--Indo-Asian News Service