India,Pakistan leaders to push peace process in US

NEW DELHI, Tuesday (Reuters) The leaders of India and Pakistan meet in New York to push forward a peace process which is beginning to offer a realistic chance of a lasting rapprochement between the long-time foes.

No one expects a major breakthrough when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, but analysts expect the pair to review and renew their quest for peace and a solution to the decades-old dispute over Kashmir.

"In all the history of the Kashmir dispute, this peace process holds out the greatest promise," said Bharat Karnad of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. "Things are really happening, and both governments are committed.

There are plenty of hurdles still to overcome, plenty of sceptics still around. Singh accused Pakistan last month of being "half-hearted" in its efforts to prevent militants using its soil to attack Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Pakistan still suspects India of dragging its feet in the search for a lasting solution to the Kashmir question, and before leaving for New York Musharraf said he expected this to top the agenda when he meets Singh.

But the backdrop for the meeting is a remarkable shift in the attitudes of the two governments since the nuclear-armed rivals came close to war in 2002.

Islamabad has effectively abandoned its quest for a plebiscite to allow the people of Kashmir to choose between India and Pakistan, and Musharraf has publicly recognised that India is not prepared to redraw its boundaries.

Instead, the two leaders are talking of a "borderless solution" - turning the heavily militarised frontline dividing Kashmir into a soft border, ending the violence and allowing people and trade to cross back and forth. India has ceded ground too, bringing Kashmiri separatists into the peace process and allowing them to talk to both sides, in what is being described as a "triangular dialogue".