Pakistan and Israel held their first-ever high-level talks here on Thursday in a bid to normalise ties, but President Pervez Musharraf, faced with protests at home, insisted his country was not yet ready to recognise the Jewish state.
Buoyed by Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip and its desire to better its ties with Arab and Muslim states in general, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Isreali counterpart Silvan Shalom met in Istanbul for what they called historic talks.
The two ministers emerged upbeat from the meeting, which was arranged after Turkey, a mainly Muslim but strictly secular state with close ties with both countries, played a mediating role to bring them together.
In a joint press conference with Shalom, Kasuri hailed the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, which he said constituted a turning point for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"Pakistan has therefore decided to engage with Israel," he told reporters at a top Istanbul hotel where the talks were held but did not elaborate on what sort of an engagement his country was planning.
Shalom, for his part, said the meeting heralded a new era in bilateral ties.
"This is a historic meeting," the Israeli minister said. "We see this meeting as the beginning of a new period, the beginning of open and useful mutual relations."
Israel was hoping to establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan, Shalom told a separate news conference later in the day, but acknowledged that they were not in the making soon.
"I believe positive and full diplomatic ties will be established, but this will take time," he said.
Israeli diplomatic sources in Turkey said a formal agreement could be announced at the UN General Assembly later this month, to be attended by leaders of the both countries.
Israel currently has full diplomatic relations with only three Arab states - Mauritania, Egypt and Jordan - and a handful of Muslim majority states including Turkey.
It has been hoping that its pullout from the Gaza Strip would help bridge the gap with the Arab and Muslim world.
But the Istanbul talks unleashed outrage among Pakistani religious parties, which called for nation-wide protests after Friday prayers to express anger at the government's "anti-Islamic move".
"This is a move which is against the interest of Islamic Ummah and reflects the pro-US policies of the present government," Shahid Shamsi, the spokesman for Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, told AFP.
Threatened by protests, Musharraf promptly denied any change in Pakistan's long-held stance that diplomatic ties with Israel could only be considered once a Palestinian homeland is established.
"This does not mean that we are recognising Israel," he told reporters. "We will not recognise Israel unless the Palestinians get their homeland or there are signs of an accord in this direction."
He defended the Istanbul meeting, saying it was backed by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Istanbul meeting comes just two weeks before Musharraf, a key US ally, is due to make a rare address to the American Jewish Congress in New York, to speak about his campaign for moderation in the Muslim world.
Meanwhile, Britain described the meeting as a "positive step".
When approached for comments, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Spokesman told APP, "We are aware of today's meeting and we think that this is a positive step."
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