Indian press hails Vajpayee's meetings with Pak leaders

Most dailies splashed pictures of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Zafarullah Jamali shaking hands after the opening of the summit of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Islamabad Sunday.

"Day one: Well begun, all say a lot to be done," ran the headline of The Indian Express.

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The Hindu titled its report "Vajpayee meets Jamali as ties are put on track," while The Asian Age headlined its piece: "One to one, Jamali first, Musharraf today," referring to Vajpayee's meeting Monday with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Vajpayee and Musharraf had not spoken formally since July 2001, when they attended a bilateral summit in the Indian city of Agra.

They shook hands two years ago at the last Saarc summit in Kathmandu.

Indian media reports noted the arch-rivals stayed away from contentious issues at the summit, with Pakistan not raising the decades-old Kashmir dispute and India not accusing the neighbour of arming rebels in the divided Himalayan region.