India-Pakistan peace dialogue 'back on track'

Islamabad: A peace process between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan is back on track but needs to make progress on their main dispute, over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Shah Mahmoud Qureshi held talks with his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee, on their four-year-old peace process that has improved ties since the neighbours nearly went to war in 2002 but had been in a lull for more than a year because of political turmoil in Pakistan.

"The elected democratic government has broken the stalemate and we are back on track," said Qureshi.

The only new agreement to come out of the talks was on consular access to each other's detained nationals but both ministers appeared positive.

Mukherjee said that the main purpose of his visit had been to establish contacts with the new government and he was going home satisfied.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's government promised to "gradually" pull out troops from the northwestern valley of Swat after signing a peace agreement with the Taliban on Wednesday.