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Hoped-for talks between India and Pakistan failed to materialise Thursday as a South Asian regional meeting ended with the rivals sticking to their entrenched positions over Kashmir.

Foreign ministers from the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) finished two-days of discussions in Kathmandu on Thursday afternoon.

There had been hopes that India and Pakistan might use the opportunity to hold talks on the sidelines of the conference and on Wednesday the two foreign ministers shook hands for the cameras.

But Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and Pakistani deputy foreign minister Imanul Haq did not meet.

"We have sat at the same table. We have spoken to each other, but certainly not about the issues that have bedevilled the relationship," Haq said.

India has ruled out any formal talks with Pakistan unless Islamabad stops what it calls "cross-border terrorism" in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

India says militants are still entering Indian Kashmir, despite a promise by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to put to a halt to the insurgency.

But Haq told reporters that India itself had to play a part in preventing Muslim militants crossing the disputed border in Kashmir.

He said that if there was any infiltration of militants it was going on without the knowledge or support of Pakistan.

"We have taken a position that we will not allow anybody across the LoC," he told a group of reporters.

But he added that it was impossible to seal off the porous border and Indian security forces lined up on the borders should play a part in stopping militants crossing over.

"Why doesn't India arrest infiltrators when they cross over?" he asked.

"The onus in what is going on in Indian Kashmir cannot be laid on Pakistan."

Haq said the only way to assess whether infiltration was continuing was to have an international mechanism in place to monitor the LoC.

However, he ruled out joint patrols with India as proposed by New Delhi.

"In a situation where there are more than a million men are staring at each other across the line of control, there is not sufficient confidence in each other to start joint patrolling," Haq said.

Talks between the nuclear rivals have been stalled since last year, with tensions spiralling after an Islamic militant attack on India's parliament complex last December by gunmen New Delhi claims were sponsored by Islamabad -- a claim it rejects.

That attack resulted in hundreds of thousands of troops being deployed on the border, triggering international fears of a nuclear conflict.

After the meeting concluded Sinha said the tensions between India and Pakistan were not raised during the two-day meeting.

"It is our endeavour not to let bilateral issues cloud SAARC. No contentious issues were raised in the meeting."

But there was a spat between the two countries over the date of the next SAARC leader's summit due to be held in Islamabad next year, with Pakistani officials alleging India would not fix a date.

But Sinha said India would be attending summit, which he said would be on a date to be fixed between January 5 to 20 next year, despite what he called was some "confusion, perhaps deliberately created".

"This was misinterpreted... that India is not interested in attending the summit, which is not true.

SAARC, formed in 1985, groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The meeting of the foreign ministers decided to accelerate regional economic cooperation and said high priority should be given alleviation.

A SAARC statement said the ministers had decided to convene a ministerial level meeting to discuss jointly combatting terrorism "in recognition of the need to update the SAARC convention on the suppression of terrorism".

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