By Manish Chand,

On Board Air India One, Jan 15 (IANS) India Monday struck a realistic note on resolving the Siachen and Sir Creek disputes with Pakistan saying that although the parleys have made progress on these issues it would be premature to talk of agreement on them.

"We have to take a holistic view of our relationship with Pakistan. We have had several rounds of composite dialogues in which the Siachen and Sir Creek issues figured," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters while returning to India after attending the India-ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

"We are making progress. It will be premature for me to say that we have reached a stage where we can say that agreement is signed," Manmohan Singh said. "It will be my effort to sustain the momentum," he stressed.

He said this while responding to a question on the ongoing speculation about imminent breakthroughs on the disputes with Pakistan over the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battleground in the Himalayas, and Sir Creek marshland in the Gulf of Kutch.

Describing External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's weekend visit to Pakistan as "useful and successful", the prime minister said he would talk to Mukherjee after he goes to New Delhi on the progress in talks with Islamabad.

"Future course of action will be determined after I have had a briefing from him," he added.

Manmohan Singh, however, did not give a categorical reply to a question on whether he will go to Pakistan before the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit to be held in New Delhi in April. All he said was that he has an invitation from President Pervez Musharraf to visit Pakistan.

While going to the Philippines Saturday, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had said that the prime minister's visit to Pakistan would depend on the atmosphere and circumstances at that moment.

India has maintained that authentication of the ground position of troops on the Siachen glacier is the only "realistic and rational" way to resolve the long-standing dispute.

"We have made it clear that the authentication of ground position of troops on the Siachen is the only realistic and rational way for both sides to resolve the issue," Narayanan underlined Saturday.

Pakistan has hinted at a possible accommodation of the Indian position on the demiltarisation of the Siachen glacier, which has claimed more lives due to frostbite than in military battles.

"Pakistan is not for authentication of any positions, but is ready to address India's concerns. Ways and means can be found to ascertain actual troop positions," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, who held talks with Mukherjee, told NDTV in an interview in Islamabad Saturday.