India, Pakistan NSA talks 'most productive'

India and Pakistan on Tuesday termed as "most productive" the talks between their national security advisers, which covered all issues of "mutual concern", including spurt in terrorist activities in both countries.

"The two national security advisers reviewed the status of bilateral relations against the backdrop of recent summit level meeting between the leadership of both countries," a joint press communique said.

The communique was issued after talks between National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and his Pakistani counterpart Mahmud Ali Durrani and the latter's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

"The discussions, which were held in a very cordial atmosphere, covered all issues of mutual concern and interest, including the regional situation. The discussions were most productive," it said.

During the talks between NSAs, Narayanan voiced concern over the spurt in ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side and the July 7 suicide attack on Indian embassy in Kabul, for which Afghanistan, India and the US have blamed the Inter Services Intelligence.

The Sir Creek boundary dispute and Kashmir issue are understood to have figured in the discussions between the two NSAs.

"The two NSAs affirmed the utility of a dialogue of this nature and regarded their discussions as providing an important channel of communication between the highest levels in the two governments," the communique said.

"Things are going okay," Durrani told reporters in Delhi after meeting Mukherjee.

He, however, insisted that ISI was not involved in the Kabul Embassy bombing.

Dr Singh raised this issue with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Colombo on the sidelines of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in August. Gilani had promised to hold an internal inquiry to ascertain whether or not ISI was involved.

The Kabul Embassy attack, along with a spurt in ceasefire violations, had forced India to say that the dialogue process was under "strain" and warn that its future could be in difficulty if such acts continued.

The talks between the NSAs were a follow-up to the meeting between Dr Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in New York last month on the margins of UN General Assembly.

India has been asking Pakistan to fulfill its promises of not allowing territories under its control for anti-India activities to facilitate forward movement in bilateral ties, which have gone through "difficult times" recently.

Zardari had assured Dr Singh that his government would stand by its commitment of not allowing anti-India activities from Pakistani soil.

The two leaders had agreed that violence, hostility and terrorism have no place in the vision they share of the bilateral relationship and must be "visibly and verifiably" prevented.

They had agreed to work for an early and full normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan, on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and non-interference.