Menon, who is leading a high-powered delegation comprising officials from the External Affairs, Information and Technology and Science and Technology ministries, will be here on a three-day visit.
The status of the peace process and the Sri Lankan government's efforts are believed to have been discussed during the 30-minute meeting.
Pal, who succeeded Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, was among the seven new envoys of different countries who presented their credentials separately at a colourful ceremony at the Presidential office in Islamabad.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon during his recent visit to the US made it clear to officials there that it was not India but Pakistan, which had mobilised troops along the border in the aftermath of Mumbai attacks, sources in New Delhi said on Thursday night.
Top CIA officials met Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Monday and are understood to have discussed evidence of Pakistani involvement in the July 11 Mumbai blasts.
Amid a chill in Indo-Pak ties, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher arrives in New Delhi on Thursday from Pakistan to discuss the situation arising out of the Mumbai terror attacks. Boucher will meet Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and the two sides will deliberate on how Pakistan-based perpetrators of the Mumbai strikes can be brought to justice.
A day after Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta made some harsh comments against Russia, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Tuesday said relations with Moscow were excellent and any issue between the two countries can be sorted out. "We have excellent relations with Russia. If there are any issues, we can sort them out," Menon told reporters in New Delhi
The two sides also discussed issues related to release of prisoners, trade, confidence-building measures and other matters listed under the composite dialogue process.
Menon is expected to press India's case for allowing it to have civil nuclear cooperation with the international community. He is likely to cite India's impeccable track record on the non-proliferation front despite being a non-signatory to the NPT.
It will end India's nuclear isolation, he noted. Ahead of his visit here, Burns said last week that 90 per cent of the work has been completed and he would be making the "final effort".
Before going in for talks, Burns told media persons that the two countries had come a long way in the talks on the agreement since the negotiations began two years ago.
"We'd like to get to the bottom of it," said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
Menon will undertake a two-day visit from April 30 during which he will hold talks with US Under Secretary Nicholas Burns on the 123 agreement amid indications that Washington was 'frustrated' at the speed of the negotiations.
On his first visit to Washington after taking over as foreign secretary, Menon on Wednesday had a three-hour-long discussion with Burns, who is the key negotiator for the nuclear deal.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon arrived in Beijing on Sunday to attend a meeting of G-8 'outreach countries', becoming the first top Indian diplomat to visit China since the outbreak of the Tibet unrest. The G-5 meeting in Bejing is a multilateral consultation exercise on economic and trade issues and climate change, among others, that major developing nations wish to take up with G-8. Menon is expected to meet Chinese officials and discuss the of bilateral issues.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will open the 5th US-India High Technology Cooperation Group hosted by the US-India Business Council at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC on February 22.
Mulford is understood to have conveyed the US' displeasure over the uncertainty that has come to surround the crucial initiative between the two countries. In his third meeting in four days with leaders and officials, the US envoy is believed to have sought to know what the government is planning to do to push the deal that is being vigorously opposed by the Left Front. The meeting came a day after Singh said the "process of evolving a meaningful consensus is still on."
Keen to conclude the civil nuclear deal by the year-end, India and the US will hold another round of high level talks in July to sort out differences that have been nagging the negotiations for months.
shiv Shankar Menon said India had a very meaningful relationship with the US on counter terrorism.
As the United States continues to nudge it to conclude the civil nuclear deal at the earliest, India on Thursday said it is aware of the time-table but negotiations take its own time.
The key negotiators of the two sides will aim at resolving differences on aspects like reprocessing right and continuity of civil nuclear cooperation if India were to conduct an atomic test in future.
'We are aghast at what happened in Gujarat a few days ago, on the 75th anniversary of India's Independence'
Shivshankar Menon said the government's amendment to the Citizenship Act was a "self-inflicted goal".
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