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India, Pakistan hold back-channel talks

Source:PTI
November 05, 2006 20:18 IST

Ahead of the foreign secretary-level talks later this month, India and Pakistan have held a 'back-channel' interaction, a media report said in Islamabad.

Pakistan's National Security Council Secretary Tariq Aziz held parleys with his Indian counterpart S K Lambah, in a Gulf country, according to The News newspaper.

It said Aziz had since returned and reported the details of his talks to President Pervez Musharraf.

Nothing came to surface about an agreement on Siachen, the newspaper reported.

The parleys came to an end without any agreement on a date for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Pakistan, it said.

Officials in New Delhi refused to confirm or deny the report.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had recently said that the two countries were close to an agreement on Siachen.

India, however, did not share the view that a pact could come about in the near future because of terms and conditions attached.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries are to meet in New Delhi from November 13 to 15, resuming the Composite Dialogue process, which had been stalled after the Mumbai bomb blasts.

Kasuri will also visit India later this month on a private visit during which he is expected to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Source: PTI
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