Peace talks between India, Pakistan delayed

NEW DELHI, India -- Indian leaders on Friday ruled out holding high-level talks soon with Pakistan, reflecting a chill in efforts to revive peace talks between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee said in a German newspaper interview published Friday that he has no plans to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, though both will attend the G-8 summit in Evian, France next month.

"A meeting is not planned," Vajpayee told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Asked whether there would be high-level meetings in the coming months, he replied: "Not immediately."

Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters, "Talks will take their own time. We are not close to the point yet."

"At present, confidence-building measures are on. And only when one has reached a certain point can there be talks. It will take some time," Fernandes said Friday.

The comments were in sharp contrast to earlier this month, when Vajpayee announced May 2 he would hold a new round of talks with Pakistan in a bid for peace in his lifetime.

He and Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had spoken by phone, and Islamabad said they would meet soon. The two countries announced they would restore diplomatic ties and air links, cut last year.

But India has since complained that the Pakistani response was too slow. India waited for Pakistan to agree to overflight rights, not just landing rights, for Indian aircraft. India has named a new ambassador, but Pakistan has not. Vajpayee declined Jamali's invitation to Islamabad. Vajpayee has not met Musharraf since a failed summit in 2001, and they have not spoken since January 2002.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said it he had no comment in response to India's remarks published Friday.

India has also been pressing Pakistan to do more in cracking down on Islamic militant groups that send fighters into India's portion of disputed Kashmir. Pakistan denies that militants cross into India from its territory.

After a fierce gunbattle near the Kashmir frontier on Thursday, India's Defense Ministry announced that 35 militants had crossed over in the biggest infiltration bid since snows began melting in the high passes in May.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between the two countries, and claimed in its entirety by both. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, where the Islamic insurgency has resulted in more than 61,000 deaths since 1983.