US rejects Sharif's call to get involved on Kashmir

But the US official did expect "India to come up at some point" during Sharif's first meeting Wednesday with US President Barack Obama nearly a month after Indian Prime Minister's Sep 27 summit with Obama at the White House.





While the focus of the Obama-Sharif meeting would be bilateral relationship, including energy, economy and extremism, in addition to Afghanistan, the official said, "We expect India to come up at some point."

"We have been very encouraged by steps that both India and Pakistan have taken," he said "to resolve issues on the trade and energy side, in keeping with the "energy and economy theme" that Obama and Sharif would explore here.

"Obviously (they are) very positive," he said referring to the steps taken since Sharif's meeting with Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York just two days after a summit with Obama where he had called Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism.

Like India, US officials too expressed concern that terrorism emanating from inside Pakistan could derail on-going peace talks between India and Pakistan after Sharif was voted to power in May this year.