Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Pakistan's Khurshid Kasuri and their close aides had a quiet dinner Wednesday night, met in an Istanbul hotel Thursday, and held a joint noon news conference. The meeting was a well-kept secret until it began.

Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers have met secretly in the two countries' early days, recalled Moshe Yegar who had been the Israeli Foreign Ministry's deputy director general for Asia and Africa. Diplomats met in New York, Washington, Rome and Tokyo.

A Few businessmen traded with Pakistan and an Israeli Brig. Gen. (now in the reserves) Udi Shalvi befriended Gen. Pervez Musharraf, now Pakistan's president, when both of them attended a yearlong military course in Britain.

Shalvi said they sometimes exchanged letters and several months ago Musharraf invited him, along with nine other officers of that course, to see a polo game in northern Pakistan.

The Pakistani newspaper Dawn said covert contacts have been going on for months through diplomatic and informal channels.

According to Israel Radio, the Foreign Ministry's Director General Ron Prosor was involved in them. Prosor has been involved in several attempts to establish relations with Arab regimes.

The Israeli government repeatedly asked Pakistan this year to publicize the contacts, Dawn continued. Islamabad's invariable answer was it would do so at an "appropriate" time.

Last week Israel evacuated 15,000 settlers and their supporters from the Gaza Strip and from two settlements in the northern West Bank. It was as a prelude to Israel's withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip.

"We are now committed to pull out form all the Gaza Strip," the Foreign Ministry's spokesman Mark Regev Thursday told United Press International. "In a matter of only a few weeks I don't expect to see any Israeli soldiers, police or civilians in any part of Gaza," he added.

Shalom told Israel Radio that in his contacts with many states with whom Israel has no diplomatic relations he had said, "The best time to (establish ties) is after implementing the disengagement.'"

The Pakistani and Israeli officials decided to meet in neutral territory, Dawn said. Last week Musharraf called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and asked to hold the meeting there. Erdogan then phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and offered the hospitality.

Shalom seemed excited after Thursday's meeting.

It was "a breakthrough of really very great importance, without me exaggerating," he told the Israeli army's radio station, Galei Tsahal.

Shalom said he and Kasuri agreed on several points that teams are preparing so that "all those plans" could be implemented when they meet again, in a fortnight, at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Shalom would not detail but said, "the goal is to normalize relations between the two states. That is their goal and ours."

"At the end of the road we want to have diplomatic relations but it was decided that from now on the relations will be open...good."

Yegar whose book, "The Long Journey to Asia," describes Israel's diplomatic moves there, noted since its establishment in 1948, the Jewish state sought relations with the entire world irrespective of the regimes.

"The Arabs did not agree and they dragged the Islamic bloc (with them).

"It is important for Israel to say that there is a dispute with neighboring states, not a religious dispute with Islam, but when the whole (Islamic) world was against us it did not look good," Yegar told United Press International.

Ties with Pakistan, one of the largest Islamic states, would thus help crack that front, Yegar indicated.

Israel has diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania, which are members of the Arab League, as well as with Turkey whose citizens are predominantly Muslim.

"Many times I said I believe we can have ties with 10 Arab and Moslem states and I think we are close to it," Shalom said. "We are in touch with most states," he added.

He did not name those countries but noted that until 2000, when the intifada erupted, Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar and Oman had offices in Tel Aviv. Several months ago, he was about to fly to Chad to re-establish diplomatic relations but Israel Radio reported the plan and it was quashed. Israel's then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin visited Indonesia.

The Pakistanis seemed reserved. Kasuri told reporters his country decided "to engage" with Israel.

Islamabad "attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza.... We see this development as the beginning of the process of (ending) Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security," he added, according to the BBC.

Before the meeting with Shalom, Musharraf contacted Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who "welcomed the meeting," Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan reportedly said in Islamabad.

The meeting in London did not mean Pakistan was recognizing Israel, Musharraf told regional leaders in the southwestern city of Quetta.

"We will not talk about recognition of Israel until a Palestinian state is established and then we will think about it," he said, according to the Jang newspaper group.

Musharraf's spokesman quoted the president as saying: "It is too early to talk about diplomatic relations .... We can have diplomatic relations after a sovereign state of Palestine comes into being, and after Pakistan has consultations with the other Muslim countries."

Two years ago, Musharraf initiated a public debate on his country's attitude toward Israel and, according to Dawn, it was decided to link recognition to a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab lands and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

It was not just a matter of Muslim solidarity. The Dawn mentioned "the strategic dimension and Pakistan's national security considerations."

It was an unmistakable allusion to Israel's very close strategic ties with India, Pakistan's foe. Israel has supplied India with advanced weapons systems and Pakistan reportedly sought to neutralize Israel.

Kasuri raised the issue with Shalom who told reporters he had replied that "Israel's ties with India are not at the expense of third countries such as Pakistan."

In citing the reasons for the changed attitude toward Israel, Dawn noted also "the influence of the Jewish lobby and Israel in American policies."

Musharraf has been facing American criticism and he might be trying to win the Jews' support in the hope it would help him in Washington. Such an attitude had led India to establish ties with Israel, Yegar noted.

Musharraf accepted an invitation to address the American Jewish Congress, while he is in the United States, his spokesman confirmed.

However the Istanbul meeting aroused the anger of radical Pakistani Muslims. Leaders of the six-party alliance of Islamic parties told the BBC the meeting went "against Pakistan's national interest as well as state policy." Demonstrations are expected there Friday.

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