Pakistan, India in talks on bus service, water row and maritime security

ISLAMABAD, Wednesday (AFP) Pakistani and Indian officials held talks on starting a new cross-border bus service while separate groups wrapped up discussions on a water row and met to boost maritime links.. The meetings were the latest aiming to refine a range of confidence-building measures agreed by the South Asian nuclear rivals, who launched a historic peace process in January 2004..

Transport chiefs opened two days of talks over the start of the bus link between the holy Sikh town of Amritsar in India and Pakistan's second-largest city, Lahore.. "The talks are progressing well," a transport ministry official told AFP after the start of an Islamabad meeting between two senior officials from the respective countries.

Separately, three days of talks on the controversial Kishanganga Dam in Indian Kashmir concluded in Lahore Tuesday without resolution, officials said.. "We could not have a convergence of views during the talks, and the issue of the dams' designs would be further discussed in New Delhi in last week of May," Jamaat Ali Shah, head of Pakistan delegation, told AFP..

Pakistan has raised objections over India's building of two water projects in the disputed Himalayan state - the Kishanganga and Baglihar dams - saying they violate a 1960s water accord brokered by the World Bank.. Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency and Indian Coast Guard officials also began two days of talks in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, a defence ministry official told AFP, requesting anonymity..

"The talks are aimed at establishing a communication link for strengthening cooperation at sea," the official said..

A defence ministry statement said the meeting "underscored the need for establishing communication link ... with the principal purpose to exchange information on those fishing crafts and boats which engage in illegal fishing in each others areas."