Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, former chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has said that the time has come for the government of India and APHC to address the core issues instead of talking about things that have no relevance.

A six-member delegation led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman APHC, would be arriving in New Delhi on Tuesday evening.

A meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] is scheduled for Wednesday evening around 6 pm.

"We have not yet got the confirmation of the time, but it should be in the evening I guess," said Bhatt in a conversation with rediff.com from his residence in Srinagar [Images] on Tuesday morning.

This would be the second meeting between the Hurriyat leaders and prime minister. The last meeting took place in September 2005.

"A six-member delegation comprising of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Molvi Abbas Ansari, Bilal Lone, myself, Fazal Haq Qureshi and Aga Syed Hassan would be meeting the prime minister. Let us hope all goes well for Hurriyat, the government of India, the government of Pakistan and if you like, Muzaffarabad and the people of Kashmir. We would be talking straight. The time has come to address the core issue and there is no point in talking about issues that have no relevance with the problem of Kashmir. We are trying to find a solution to a long standing problem," he said.

This is the first time in many months that Professor Bhat has chosen to speak to any news organisation. On previous occasions he let Mirwaiz do the talking.

When asked if he would accept the invitation if Dr Singh asked them to join the round table conference to be held later in May in Srinagar, he said, "The APHC in that event would meet and take a stand."