Agreement on prisoners signed

Islamabad: Pakistan and India signed an agreement on Tuesday for consular access to each other's prisoners, as foreign ministers of the nuclear armed neighbours wrapped up two days of talks.

Both the countries also expressed a common desire to inject new momentum into the bilateral peace dialogue launched four years ago.

The Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a joint news conference that the two governments were resolved to carry the peace process forward.

Qureshi said it was agreed that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would make "long due" visit to Pakistan this year and a date would be announced after making further "reasonable" progress in the dialogue.

He said the next 5th round of the Pakistan-India composite dialogue would start by mid-July and before that he would visit New Delhi in June, adding that both sides were satisfied with the progress achieved in the previous rounds.

Senior foreign ministry officials said the two sides had moved closer to agreements on the issues of Siachen glacier and Sir Creek. Siachen has been under discussion for a possible demilitarisation while the two countries have already carried out joint survey in Sir Creek marshy land for demarcation of the boundary.

Ahead of the talks between Mukherjee and Qureshi, the foreign secretaries of the two countries held a lengthy meeting on Tuesday to review the progress in the last round of the dialogue.

Mukherjee called on President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

He also separately met the two top Pakistani political leaders, Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, and the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-N and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Mukherjee called for expanding the bilateral trade and encouraging investment in each other's country and making amendments in policies to facilitate the process.

Kashmir dispute

The first interaction between Pakistan's post-election new government and the Indian side threw up nothing new on the lingering Kashmir dispute, the main barrier to full normalisation of relations. The two sides were however optimistic about progress in future towards a resolution of all outsanding issues.

"We understand that we can resolve all outstanding issues with self respect and dignity," Qureshi said.

Mukherjee said in his discussions with Pakistani leaders, "I found a strong willingness and desire to move ahead and work towards full realisation of our relationship."

"A stable and prosperous, peaceful Pakistan and India is in our mutual interest," the Indian minister said.

Qureshi said the two sides agreed to continue discussions on Kashmir and build on convergence and narrow down divergences, with focus on Kashmir-related confidence building measures.

It was decided to increase the frequency of Muzaffarabad-Srinagar and Rawalakot-Poonch bus service to a weekly service from fortnightly service. They also agreed to finalise modalities for intra-Kashmir trade and truck service.

Qureshi termed the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline an excellent idea for the energy deficient South Asian region and said Pakistan was sincere in its efforts for progress on the project.

"IPI could play a vital role in economic progress of the two countries," he added.

The Pakistani foreign minister said the two countries agreed to fight terrorism together. The already existing joint anti-terrorism mechanism would be activated and it would be ensured that terror incidents did not affect the ties.