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ISLAMABAD, Wednesday (AFP) Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, armed with opposition backing, announced a series of confidence-building measures with India ahead of a high-level US visit to spur a peace process between the nuclear rivals.

Jamali announced the lifting of curbs on travel to India and proposed an exchange of ambassadors, the restoration to full strength of the countries' respective missions in their capitals and a revival of sports ties. The prime minister told a news conference that he had the backing of the parliamentary opposition to enter into a purposeful dialogue with India.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca are due here for talks with President Pervez Musharraf and Jamali during which the emerging momentum towards an elusive thaw in relations between India and Pakistan is to figure prominently.

Peace overtures between the hostile neighbours in the past three weeks have spawned hopes of their first dialogue in almost two years and a normalisation of relations after a tense 17-month stand-off.

Since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee agreed out of the blue on April 18 to Pakistan's long-held call for talks, dialogue appears closer than at any time since the last official bilateral meeting in July 2001.

Jamali has since sent a formal invitation to Vajpayee to come to Pakistan for talks and said the Indian response was positive.

"We are ready to engage in a serious and substantive dialogue with India... this should lead to a new chapter in the life of the region," he said.

"I am hopeful and Inshallah (God willing) a good, solid solution should be coming forward on all the issues including of course Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

Islamist party leaders have pledged full support for the detente with India - on the condition that Pakistan maintains its long-held demand for a plebiscite among Kashmiris to choose rule by New Delhi or Islamabad, as the United Nations Security Council has called for in resolutions dating back to 1948.

Jamali assured the Islamic parties that Pakistan would not budge from its demand for self-determination in Kashmir.

Officials expect the first exploratory talks, at either ambassadorial or foreign secretary level, could take place between the neighbours in June.

Meanwhile thirteen people were killed, nine of them Muslim rebels, in a series of gun battles and explosions in Kashmir despite peace moves by India and Pakistan, police said.

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