Pakistan and India Inch Towards Peace Talks

Pakistan and India took another step towards renewing negotiations over the Kashmir dispute yesterday when Islamabad said it had received a "positive response" from New Delhi after inviting India's prime minister to visit.

Pakistan's prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, held a meeting last night with his political opponents to agree a negotiating position for what might be the first summit between the nuclear-armed rivals in two years.

The announcement came shortly before the arrival of Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, who is travelling to Pakistan and India this week to get the talks off the ground. Intense but discreet American diplomacy has dragged the two nations from the brink of war last summer to the prospect of decisive peace negotiations.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said yesterday: "We want to enter into a dialogue process with a positive frame of mind." Islamabad would soon announce new measures to improve relations, he said.

He also repeated Pakistan's offer to declare south Asia a nuclear weapon-free zone: "As far as Pakistan is concerned, if India is ready to denuclearise, we would be happy to denuclearise. But it will have to be mutual. Our position has been that we were forced into the situation because of Indian nuclear ambitions."

India has already promised to restart flights to Pakistan and to return its ambassador. Pakistan is now likely to match the gesture and perhaps offer a cricket match to prepare the way for a summit.

India's hardline nationalist prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, seized the initiative 10 days ago with an offer to hold talks on the dispute. At the time he insisted that Pakistan must first stop allowing militants to fight in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Last week, Mr Jamali responded by inviting the Indian leader to travel to Pakistan for talks. At the time Mr Vajpayee turned down the offer as militants continued their attacks.

Yesterday, a bomb at a bus station in Doda, in Indian Kashmir, killed one person and wounded 17. Despite the violence, Pakistani officials say the Indian leader appears ready to accept the invitation.

The row has triggered two wars between the two countries, in 1947 and 1965. In 1989 Islamists, covertly supported by the Pakistan army, began a guerrilla uprising in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Last year, a series of attacks pushed the Indian and Pakistani armies to mobilise along their border.

Few held out hope of a thaw between Mr Vajpayee, the Hindu nationalist in Delhi, and General Pervez Musharraf, the military president in Islamabad who oversaw an assault on the Kargil district of Indian-ruled Kashmir four years ago.

The impetus for talks has come from the US. The state department has described the Kashmir rivalry as one of the most dangerous disputes in the world. Since the September 11 attacks, Washington has been keen for Islamabad to crack down on Pakistan's Islamist underground, which has close links with al-Qaida.

Last week the state department added the names of five more militant groups fighting in Kashmir to its list of terrorist organisations.

Although Mr Jamali will represent his country at any summit, it will be Gen Musharraf who will be making the decisions. He has cautiously softened Pakistan's stance.

Two years ago, when he met Mr Vajpayee for a summit in Agra in India, Gen Musharraf insisted Kashmir should be the "core issue" of any talks. India balked at that and the summit ended in acrimony. This time, Islamabad is talking of a "composite dialogue," in a nod to Indian demands.