Pakistan's Musharraf meets Indian minister

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has held his first bilateral talks with India's new government in a bid to sustain an emerging…

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has held his first bilateral talks with India's new government in a bid to sustain an emerging peace process and end decades of hostility over Kashmir.

Mr Musharraf, one of the chief architects of a formal peace dialogue launched with New Delhi in January, met Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, who was in Islamabad for a regional forum but also to review what the talks had achieved so far.

There was no immediate word on what was discussed today.

The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours came to the brink of a fourth war in 2002 after Pakistani-based militants launched an attack on India's parliament. Moves by New Delhi and intense US diplomacy helped avert a conflict.

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Since then the two countries have agreed to a series of confidence-building measures including restoring transport links and holding a hugely popular cricket series.

Despite concern that the process has slowed since the Congress Party came to power in India in a May election, replacing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, both sides are keen to show that nothing has changed.

New Delhi blames the violence in Kashmir on Pakistani militants crossing the Line of Control, but Islamabad calls the rebellion a local "legitimate freedom struggle" against Indian rule.