Islamabad  - Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit Pakistan next month to review the fourth round of peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The two countries started peace negotiations in 2004 to resolve their differences following a decades-long rivalry and three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. But the process was put virtually on hold last year when Pakistan faced political turmoil and growing militancy.

Mukherjee will be the first high Indian official to visit the country since the formation of the new government by the slain Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, which thrashed the political backers of President Pervez Musharraf in February 18 general elections.

"The Foreign Minister of Pakistan and External Affairs Minister of India will review the progress made in the Fourth Round of Composite Dialogue on 21 May 2008 in Islamabad," a statement from Pakistani foreign ministry said.

Prior to the meeting the foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet on May 20 to make preparations for the ministerial-level talks.

Under the peace process, the two countries have taken various confidence-building measures, like increasing in people-to-people contacts and resumption of road and rail links, but there has been little progress on the issue of the Kashmir region over which the two countries have claim.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month invited the new leaders of Pakistan to put the past behind them and work with India on a framework for an enduring peace.

"We need to think about our collective destiny, our collective security, our collective prosperity," he told the Indian parliament.(dpa)