Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan entered a second day of talks yesterday to hammer out an agenda for what is likely to be a drawn-out peace process, with Kashmir and nuclear security the top issues.
Both sides said they were satisfied with the progress made on Monday when middle-ranking foreign ministry officials sat down for the first formal peace talks between the old foes in more than two and a half years.
A second day of talks yesterday aimed to pave the way for a meeting of foreign secretaries today, the highest-ranking bureaucrats in the rival ministries.
There is broad agreement to revive a "composite dialogue" over eight areas of dispute, a process that ran aground in 1998 and finally collapsed with a failed summit in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001.
But slight differences remain over who should be involved in the talks about the mainly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir, the trigger for two of three wars between the neighbors.
Pakistan wants the dialogue over Kashmir to be conducted at a political level, to maintain the momentum generated by a landmark meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last month.
India would prefer to leave the Kashmir talks to foreign secretaries, the format agreed in 1998, officials say.
Under that structure foreign secretaries would also discuss
"peace and security," code for a range of confidence-building measures meant to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear exchange.
The two sides agreed in 1999 to inform each other about upcoming missile tests, but there is still much work to be done in improving communications and understanding each other's command and control systems.
Officials from other ministries would also tackle a range of issues, including trade and economic links, people-to-people contacts and disputes over water sharing, maritime boundaries and the Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield.
On Monday, the two sides exchanged proposed dates for further meetings.
Pakistan would like to move as fast as possible, especially on Kashmir, accusing India of dragging its feet in the past and using the talks as a way to sideline the issue. India is likely to move cautiously at least until elections expected in April.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said that the talks should gather pace to produce a breakthrough before Musharraf ceases to be army chief by the end of this year.
"The President is wearing two hats for a year and advantage should be taken of that," Kasuri said in an interview to Indian newspaper <
"Common sense suggests that these [talks] should not be delayed, particularly in view of our experience from the past when dialogue began and was disrupted because of some reason or the other," he said.
Musharraf, a general who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has agreed to step down as army chief at the end of this year. Analysts say the support of Pakistan's powerful military is key to any settlement with India.
Diplomats and commentators see signs both sides genuinely want to make a fresh bid for peace and to avoid the pitfalls that have undermined previous attempts to mend their differences.
The dispute over Kashmir has triggered two wars between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947. New Delhi claims the region as an integral part of India, while Islamabad backs a UN-mandated referendum that would allow the people to chose between India and Pakistan.
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