Pakistan, India set to review peace process

ISLAMABAD, Monday (AFP) Pakistan and India meet to review the second round of a peace process started last year between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, officials said.

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, on a four-day visit to Pakistan, was due to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, a senior foreign ministry official told AFP.

"The two countries are also expected to sign three agreements during his visit including an agreement on pre-notification of ballistic missile tests," the official said.

Two other agreements relate to setting up of a communication link between the Indian coast guard and Pakistan's maritime security agency and liberalization of visa services for certain categories of travellers and consular access to prisoners, he said.

These agreements come after New Delhi and Islamabad also recently agreed to set up a hotline to stop an accidental nuclear exchange.

The missile test warning deal was struck during talks between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi in August during the second round of peace talks held since the formal peace process began in January 2004.Singh will also chair a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission between Pakistan and India, the official said.

The talks cover eight subjects including the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan and trigger of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

The Islamabad talks follow a meeting in mid-September between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York that ended without any big initiatives, contrary to some expectations.

Ahead of the foreign minister's visit, India unveiled Friday a slew of measures to spur people-to-people contacts with Pakistan.

These included liberalisation of consular and visa services - often difficult procedures for people on both sides of the border due to prickly relations.

The measures are expected to ease travel for pilgrims, sick people wishing to get medical treatment in India and others wanting to visit family members.The peace process has so far produced a number of largely symbolic steps, including a bus service across divided Kashmir and resumption of sporting ties.