Farooq, who held talks with Pervez Musharraf [Images] in United States in September, said he got this "impression" from what the Pakistan President told him about his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana.

"My impression is that they are ready to resolve the Siachen dispute," he said, according to a report in Pakistani daily "Dawn" from Washington. Singh had in principle accepted in Havana Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan.

Musharraf "believes that the two sides can make headway on Kashmir as well when he meets the Indian Prime Minister," the Mirwaiz said.

He felt Singh's visit "will be very crucial". The two sides "have already started working on the visit but I believe they need to do more homework to make the Kashmiris believe that they are moving towards resolving the Kashmir dispute".

He said, "While we are happy that India and Pakistan will be able to resolve the Siachen dispute, it does not open doors to settling the Kashmir issue".

The newspaper also quoted a Washington-based diplomat as saying that India and Pakistan were ready to resolve the Siachen and Sir Creek disputes. "They came that close in the past too. Then the Indians backed out. So I would keep my fingers crossed," he said.

According to the diplomat, believed to be a Pakistani, the deal on Siachen could be based on one of the three propositions. It could either be an accord to de-escalate hostilities, an understanding to disengage military forces, or an agreement to demilitarise the area.

Pakistan says that an understanding to resolve the Siachen dispute was reached in 1989 at the end of the defence secretary-level talks during the tenure of former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto [Images] but it could not be implemented.

An agreement to demilitarise Siachen alluded as Pakistan says it was for unilateral withdrawal of troops but declines to authenticate the positions on the higher reaches of the glacier held by Indian troops.

Ever since the two countries commenced the Composite Dialogue process in 2004, which included Siachen and Sir Creek issues, they have discussed a number of proposals including acknowledgement through satellite mapping of the positions held by both sides but have not succeeded in reaching an agreement so far.

On Sir Creek, a small strip of marshy area in Gulf Kutch in Gujarat coast, which is believed to be having oil and gas deposits, the two sides conducted a joint survey in 2004 and opted to do one more in quest for a solution which could determine the maritime economic zone of the two countries.