Women offer special prayers at the shrine of Sufi saint Khawaja Naqashband on his death anniversary in Srinagar on Wednesday. (Reuters)

April 13: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said he was open to talks with Hurriyat Conference leaders.

?We have an elected government in Jammu and Kashmir. I recognise there are people outside the political process there. We are prepared to interact with them. I am available,? the Prime Minister said in Chandigarh.

Hurriyat leaders might get an audience with Singh next week, a day or so after they meet President Pervez Musharraf.

The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference had sought meetings with Singh and Musharraf when the Pakistan President comes to Delhi.

As other meetings of the visiting President were being scheduled, the Hurriyat also queued up for an appointment but declared that it intended to meet the Indian Prime Minister as well.

After a meeting of the executive council and general council of the separatist amalgam in Srinagar, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq said the rebels did have an invitation to meet Musharraf on April 17 at 4 pm, but had not heard from Singh?s office yet.

The Mirwaiz said the amalgam wanted to avail the opportunity to impress upon the two countries that a ?permanent, honourable and just? solution to Kashmir issue was not possible without the inclusion of representatives of Kashmiris in the dialogue process.

Sources said the government had initially indicated the possibility of scheduling a meeting with the Prime Minister before the Pakistan President?s visit but the Hurriyat Conference had expressed its inability to keep the date.

The reason, the sources said, was a Hurriyat leader?s preoccupation with religious responsibilities and not political ones.