Indo-Pak leaders set for talks to restore faith in peace process

No one expects a major breakthrough on the core issue of Kashmir, the Himalayan region at the center of two of the three wars fought between the neighbours following their partition when they became independent from Britain in 1947.

"I don't think anything is going to happen on the Kashmir front," said Riffat Hussein, a defense analyst at Quaid-e-Azam University, who rued the lack of progress over the past year on a range of issues, not just Kashmir.

The peace process certainly needs a boost as relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have cooled following a series of irritants in recent months.

"This visit is a positive movement in a slow and steady process -- there are bound to be some hiccups. I'm optimistic but with a small O," said Jasjit Singh, an independent analyst of strategic affairs based in New Delhi.

Those hiccups included a violation of the cease-fire along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir last month, and the breakdown of talks over a dam being built by India that Pakistan claims will reduce the flow of water on its side of the border.

Pakistan was also irked by the cancellation of a South Asia summit in Bangladesh due to New Delhi's concerns about security in Dhaka and a political crisis in Nepal.

Islamabad had hoped the meeting would have given another chance for Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to give Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a nudge on the peace process.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani foreign secretary who has been involved in recent diplomatic exchanges, said he hoped Foreign Minister Singh can lift some of the gloom.

But the best that analysts hope for from Singh's three-day visit is some tangible step forward. And no one is quite sure what that step could be.