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India waiting for Pak response to resume secretary-level talks

India is still awaiting a response from Pakistan to various proposals mooted by New Delhi for the resumption of the official-level dialogue between the two countries, official sources said in New Delhi.

''The proposals are with Pakistan. We are waiting for their response,'' the sources said.

The proposals were placed by Foreign Secretary K Raghunath before his Pakistani counterpart Shamshad Ahmed in Dhaka in January, when they informally met at the trilateral business summit of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The sources, however, declined to identify these proposals, saying they were obviously aimed at breaking the current impasse in the talks.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries had resumed their dialogue in March last year in New Delhi. The second round of talks was held in Islamabad while the third in New Delhi got bogged down due to differences between the two sides over the modalities for discussions.

The sources said India was prepared to discuss all issues with Pakistan, but it would not like the talks to become hostage to any one single issue.

The sources drew attention to the exchange of letters between the prime ministers of the two countries after the installation of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in New Delhi, in which both of them expressed their commitment to continuing the dialogue.

The sources said the two countries were in touch through diplomatic channels but ''the ball is now in Pakistan's court''.

Asked if there was any possibility of a meeting between the two prime ministers, they said, ''Reports emanating from Islamabad say they might meet in Colombo in July on the fringes of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit''.

On whether the foreign secretary-level talks could resume before the meeting between the two prime ministers, the sources said, ''It does not look like that, but talks can always be held.''

UNI

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