Musharraf and Sharon shake hands

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shook hands at a reception just before the start of the United Nations summit.

But Musharraf played down the significance of the greeting.

"I was standing and he came in a group and shook hands with me ... he asked me how I was, I asked him how he was. That's very good," Musharraf told reporters with a smile, after initially evading questions about the meeting.

Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for Sharon, said the handshake was initiated by the Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade just before the summit opened. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had invited world leaders to a breakfast reception.

After shaking hands with Sharon, Shariv said Musharraf called over his wife and introduced her to the Israeli leader. He said there was no discussion.

The chance encounter came after foreign ministers of the two countries met in Istanbul last month, the first formal high-level contact between the Islamic and Jewish states.

Musharraf said there was no rush to step up relations between the two countries. "We want to progress toward resolution of the Palestinian dispute, and as progress is made, Pakistan would like to keep reviewing its diplomatic stance," he said.

Parliamentarians from the two countries also met in New York during an international federation for world peace convention, reports said.