Pakistan and India renewed their commitment to carry forward a peace dialogue during talks between their foreign ministers, but no breakthrough emerged on major issues.

The three-hour talks between Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri covered the Kashmir dispute, terrorism and the military stand-off at Siachen glacier.

They also discussed travel, civilian prisoners, and economic and commercial ties.

The ministers additionally reviewed the outcome from three rounds of talks under the peace dialogue that India and Pakistan initiated three years ago in a bid to bury decades of mutual acrimony and establish lasting peace.

Mukherjee said serious efforts were being made to resolve the issue of Kashmir, the Himalayan territory which has caused two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed rivals.

He said the fourth round of peace talks would be held on March 13-14, in Islamabad. Mukherjee said the first meeting of the joint anti-terrorism group set up by the two countries would be held before the end of March.

He added that the two sides had agreed to set up a committee of retired judges to visit jails in each others' countries and hasten release of prisoners who had completed their jail terms.

Mukherjee arrived here on a two-day visit primarily to invite Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to a regional summit to be held in New Delhi in April.

He delivered Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to Aziz and earlier visited President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf told Mukherjee the settlement of the violent dispute could lead to further cooperation between the countries, a Pakistani official statement said.

Musharraf said "that resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the Siachen and Sir Creek issues would open avenues for further cooperation between the two countries," the statement said.

The two countries are to conduct a survey in Sir Creek marshland from January 15 to demarcate a boundary which falls between Pakistan's southern Sindh province and the Indian state of Gujurat.

Expectations here ahead of the visit were that the talks would result in some decision to end the military stand-off on the strategic glacier, the world's highest battlefield.

Mukherjee said the two sides discussed the glacier issue and had agreed to call an early meeting of experts to find a resolution.

"Given the political will, it can be resolved within days. We are aware what work has already been done," Kasuri said.

Islamabad wants India to reduce troop levels from the vantage points on the glacier but India insists the process can start only after the authentication of Pakistani posts on the icy wasteland, where cold claims more lives than actual combat.

Sergyi Way
16.01.2007

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