New Delhi, July 17 - With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staging a walk-out in parliament in protest against 'capitulation' to Pakistan over cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said action on terrorism by Pakistan should not await other developments, including resumption of the composite dialogue.

In a statement in parliament Monday within hours of his return from Egypt, Manmohan Singh said engagement is 'the only way forward' to realise the 'vision of a stable and prosperous South Asia', but made it clear that any 'meaningful dialogue' will depend on Islamabad fulfilling its anti-terror pledge 'in letter and spirit'.

The prime minister also said that the timing, place and form of dialogue will depend on 'future developments' and underlined that India was willing to go 'more than half way provided Pakistan creates the conditions for a meaningful dialogue'.

'Whether, when and in what form we broaden the dialogue with Pakistan will depend on future developments,' Manmohan Singh told Lok Sabha about his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh Thursday.

'For the present, we have agreed that the foreign secretaries will meet as often as necessary and report to the two foreign ministers who will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly,' he said.

'I hope that there is forward movement in the coming months,' he said.

'I conveyed to him the strong sentiments of the people of India over the issue of terrorism, especially the terrorist attacks in Mumbai,' Manmohan Singh said.

'I also conveyed to Prime Minister Gilani that sustained, effective and credible action needs to be taken not only to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice, but also to shut down the operations of terrorist groups so as to prevent any future attacks,' he added.

With the contentious formulation on delinking terrorism from the composite dialogue creating a controversy in India, the prime minister reminded Pakistan about the 2004 anti-terror pledge.

'As the joint statement says, action on terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process, and therefore cannot await other developments. It was agreed that the two countries will share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats,' he said.