National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra will meet US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Munich during a two-day international security conference starting February 7.

He will convey India's concerns regarding the fallout of a military action in Iraq, but 'will also focus on pushing the bilateral engagements' beyond international concerns, officials in the Ministry of External Affairs said.

According to an official, India and the US have in the past allowed their bilateral ties to be 'strangled' by the standoff between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Mishra's meeting will come days after consultations between a delegation led by Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and US officials in Washington, DC.

Sibal, sources said, focussed on advancing bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of dual-use technology.

Mishra will 'repeat our warning that Pakistan has become the hub of international terrorism', another official said. There are any number of 'convincing evidences' with India, and US Secretary of State 'Colin Powell's speech to the UN Security Council is yet another reaffirmation of our stated position', he added.

On February 5, Powell had told the Security Council that Iraq's diplomatic mission in Pakistan is a liaison office for Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda members.

There are also some minor irritants in Indo-US ties.

At least twice, two US planes strayed into Indian airspace without proper clearances. On February 3, a Boeing 757 belonging to Conco Corporation was asked to land in Mumbai for not having 'air defence clearance'.

The 11-member crew was allowed to fly only after detailed questioning. Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the Karachi Air Traffic Control had misled the plane about the flight path.

A couple of days before that, a US air force aircraft allegedly violated norms and strayed close to Chennai. On January 31, the plane flew some 170 nautical miles east of Chennai for over three hours and did not respond to radio signals from the ATC at the Chennai airport.

An air force officer said it did not observe ‘any suspicious activity' by the plane though it violated the airspace.