ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 Kyodo Pakistan ...

ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 Kyodo

Pakistan and India began talks Monday to risk a timetable and modalities for a dialogue to reduce the outstanding disputes including athwart the divided territory of Kashmir.

The talks descendant from last month's agreement at Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a regional summit in the Pakistani capital to restart what the pair countries call a ''composite dialogue.''

A five-member Pakistani delegation l through Jalil Abbas Jilani, a joint secretary of the Foreign Ministry, and a five-member Indian mission headed by way of his counterpart Arun K. Singh, are taking part in the talks in Islamabad, officials said.

Described as ''talks about talks,'' the three-day session is look forward toed to work out the modalities for starting a sustained dialogue, its timing and the plain of the talks.

The meeting will make its recommendations to the foreign secretaries of the sum of two units countries on Wednesday, the final day, the officials said. The foreign secretaries are highest-ranking bureaucrats at the sum of two units countries' foreign ministries.

The last summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001 failed to make progres and l to a stalemate that has lasted nearly sum of two units and a half years.

The dispute through the whole extent of Kashmir has strained bilateral relations for more than five decades. Relations between the sum of two units nuclear-armed neighbors worsened after an attack on Kashmiri militants on India's parliament building in December in 2001

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