Pakistan, India leaders meet in face-to-face talks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Building on momentum toward better relations after a half-century of venom, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf held much-anticipated, face-to-face talks Monday with Indian leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The talks were seen as a milestone toward increasing confidence for a rapprochement, two years after their armies stood on the brink of war.

The meeting, held on the sidelines of a South Asian summit, lasted 65 minutes. The two men shook hands and were joined by foreign affairs and national security aides.

Masood Khan, spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry, said the fact the meeting was held was a "positive development" that would facilitate a process toward dialogue, something Pakistan has been keen to start to resolve the standoff over Kashmir.

"The two leaders discussed the positive impact of the recent confidence-building measures and hopes that their momentum would be maintained," Khan told a news briefing. "I want to make clear that I have not revealed the content of their discussions, only the context in which they were held."

Just before the meeting, Vajpayee laid a foundation stone at the Indian chancery and told reporters that the two countries have to keep on talking with each other.

"New questions have come up and new answers are being sought," Vajpayee said. "The two sides have to realize each other's problems and we have to find a way out together. ... Good relations with Pakistan are a big responsibility."

Musharraf, who survived two assassination attempts last month, shook hands with Vajpayee before they sat down for their talks at the heavily guarded President House in Islamabad. The capital has been under a virtual lockdown, with some 10,000 police and commandos deployed in the streets during the three-day summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Earlier, the foreign secretaries of the two countries had breakfast at a hotel and had "a general exchange of views," Khan said.

"We hope that all these confidence-building measures will ultimately lead toward a composite dialogue and peace and security and stability in the region," Khan told a news briefing Sunday. "These high-level meetings are very important. They create a new ambiance, they create a new atmosphere and they can facilitate bilateral negotiations also."

The meeting comes on the second day of the seven-nation summit, a multilateral venue on regional issues that has given the two heavyweights cover to hold the first direct talks between their leaders in two years. The other nations at the summit are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.

At the opening session Sunday, Vajpayee met warmly with Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. But the meeting with Musharraf, the army chief who came to power in a military coup in 1999 and the country's main power broker, was considered more significant.

The top leaders used their speeches at the summit's opening session and a dinner hosted by Musharraf to call for a new era in South Asian relations, putting aside long-standing divides and integrating their economies more closely to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of poor people in the region.

But the focus has been on the Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting, which officials were unwilling to confirm would take place until the eve of the summit.

The men last met in Agra, India, in July 2001 but failed to make any headway on the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries but claimed by both in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of infiltrating Islamic militants across the frontier in Kashmir to attack Indian forces.

Relations plummeted to the brink of war, with the two countries massing 1 million troops along their borders, after militants fighting in Kashmir staged a suicide attack Dec. 13, 2001, against India's Parliament in New Delhi. The standoff raised fears of a war at the same time U.S.-led forces were rooting out the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Since April, both sides have ratcheted down the tensions, observing a cease-fire in Kashmir and restoring full diplomatic relation and transportation links.