Modi-Sharif meeting at UN unlikely, says report

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New York next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly "was not on the cards", a media report said on.

Quoting sources, Dawn newspaper said the United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council are asking both Indian and Pakistani leaders not to be confrontational in their addresses to the General Assembly.

Sharif and Modi are expected to attend the UN General Assembly session next week.

Citing diplomatic sources, the paper said that a bilateral meeting between Sharif and Modi "is not on the cards".

In his maiden address to the 193-member UN General Assembly last year, Modi offered to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with Pakistan "without the shadow of terrorism" while asking it to create an "appropriate environment" for that. Modi's comment had come after Sharif insisted on a plebiscite in Kashmir.