India PM and Kashmir separatists begin talks

NEW DELHI, Monday (Reuters) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold talks with Kashmir's main political separatist alliance as he prepares for a meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf next week.

The talks come after Singh invited leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference last week for dialogue which analysts said was a message to alienated Kashmiris that he wanted to address their grievances.

On Sept. 14, Singh will meet Musharraf on the sidelines of the U.N. summit of world leaders in New York to push the broader India-Pakistan peace process. India's Junior Home Minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal termed the talks with Hurriyat as "very significant".

"Our interest is that there should be peace in Kashmir and I feel the Hurriyat leaders should understand this and I think they do," Jaiswal told Reuters.