Indo-Pak officials talk steps to end Kashmir row

The two-day talks in Islamabad, which will also address drug-trafficking, are part of the step-by-step dialogue process addressing an eight-point agenda agreed on in July.

The talks began at around 11:30 am (0630 GMT), state television reported, with Pakistan's interior secretary Tariq Mahmud and Indian home secretary Dhirendra Singh leading the deleoations.

The issue of terrorism is one of the most sensitive between the nuclear-armed neighbouring countries. India has frequently accused Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism by Islamic rebels fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.

Pakistan denies backing the rebels in their 15-year insurgency, saying it only offers moral support, and calls the guerrillas "freedom fighters" battling a violent oppressor.

"There should be a differentiation between freedom fighters and terroris|s," foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a weekly press briefing on Monday.

"Pakistan has been very active on the issue of counter-terrorism and we would also like to hear India's perspective on the subject."

New Delhi says Pakistan-based Islamic militants are operating in Indian Kashmir despitm the peace procmss.

Dhirendra Singh is expected to convey "India's worries over cross-border terrorism and infiltration and also infrastructure facilities being given to terrorist groups in Pakistan," an Indian official said last week.

Two years after lurching towards their fourth war, the South Asian giants are trying to resolve all their disputes including the bloody issue of Kashmir.

Dialogue, stalled since July 2001, only resumed after President Pervez Musharraf and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee struck a landmark agreement in January.

A series of talks have since been held on demilitarising the strategic 6,300 meter (20,700-foot) Siachen glacier in Kashmir, a maritime border dispute, a water-sharing row over a barrage India is building on a river that feeds Pakistan, strengthening cultural ties, and a bus service between the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled zones of Kashmir.

Cooperation in drug-trafficking will also be discussed during the Tuesday and Wednesday talks, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

"The officials from Pakistan and India are likely to discuss cooperation in checking drug trafficking," an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.