Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has met union home secretary G K Pillai against the backdrop of apparent differences between the MEA and MHA in connection with the Indo-Pak talks.

Rao met Pillai yesterday and is understood to have briefed him about the recent talks between external affairs minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart S M Qureshi.

The meeting is being seen in many quarters as an effort by Rao to break the apparent communication gap in the aftermath of the July 15 talks between the two countries.

A controversy had erupted after Pillai had made a remark about involvement of ISI in Mumbai terror attacks ahead of the talks, a matter which was taken up by the Pakistani side with its foreign minister saying that Pillai's remarks were uncalled for, and tried to equate them to hate speeches by JuD leader Hafiz Saeed.

Disapproving the comments made by Pillai on the eve of Indo-Pak talks, Krishna had said that the timing of the remarks was "very unfortunate."

Krishna had said if he was the home secretary, he would not have spoken about the details of the Pakistani-American David Headley revelations.

Factually, Pillai was "very much in order" in speaking about the disclosures made by Headley to FBI and Indian interrogators but "the timing was something which was very unfortunate," Krishna had said.

The minister said that he discussed Pillai's comments with prime minister Manmohan Singh, whom he had briefed on his parleys with his Pakistani counterpart and other leaders.

He insisted that the government was speaking in one voice on Pakistan and said he was "glad" that home ministry has now announced the appointment of a spokesperson. In recent months, Pillai has been briefing the media.

However, he dismissed as "ridiculous" the comparison sought to be drawn by Qureshi between JuD chief's anti-India statement and Pillai's remarks on ISI.