Indo-Pak talks to cover peace and security

NEW DELHI, Tuesday (AFP, Reuters) - India and Pakistan will begin the next round of official-level peace talks next month, the foreign ministry said Monday.

"It has been agreed that dialogue will be launched on the 17th and 18th of January," said ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna.

The spokesman said the talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in New Delhi would cover issues of "peace and security" and Kashmir.

India and Pakistan began talks in January 2004 to resolve all disputes dating back to 1947 when the sub-continent was partitioned at independence - especially Kashmir which each country holds in part but claims in full.

The peace process has so far produced a number of largely symbolic steps, including a bus service across Kashmir and the resumption of sporting ties, but progress has been sluggish on central issues..

India and Pakistan are putting the finishing touches to a new rail link between the two countries, 40 years after Pakistani fighter jets bombed the tracks as a train darted across a desert border crossing.

The passenger train, connecting Munabao in India's western desert state of Rajasthan and Khokrapar, a border village in Pakistan's Sindh province, is expected to run again from next month as the old rivals open another transport link as part of a slow peace process.

At Munabao, a small town known mainly as the last stop for the train to Pakistan, India has built a gleaming new station and workers are rushing to spruce up the terminal ahead of the inauguration.

A date for the launch is yet to be set, but Indian officials said they would be ready to start the service by Jan. 1. Locals are elated over the prospect of being able to meet friends and relatives separated from them after India was partitioned in 1947 and Pakistan created.

"I can visit my ancestral house across the border and meet relatives I've never met," said Rajendra Panwar, a villager in the Munabao area whose ancestors were from Khokrapar.

A train already links India's Punjab state with Pakistani Punjab, while a bus runs between the Indian capital New Delhi and Lahore in Pakistan and also across the heavily-militarised frontier in Kashmir.

Another bus service is likely to start soon between the neighbours who have gone to war three times - twice over disputed Kashmir - and were on the brink of another war in 2002 before launching the latest peace bid.