Foreign ministers from India and Pakistan met yesterday to review a nascent peace process aimed at ending decades of hostility over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri held informal talks with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh on the sidelines of a regional trade forum to discuss where the roadmap to peace is leading the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

It was their third meeting since Singh?s Congress party won a shock victory in Indian elections in May.

While no breakthrough is expected, diplomats and analysts say sustaining contact is vital to the process.

Despite official optimism, there is little tangible evidence of how India and Pakistan can bridge differences over Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars.

But top diplomats meeting this week in Islamabad have discussed proposals for a bus service linking the two capitals of the disputed region, and a firm date for technical talks on the issue would be seen as progress.

Differences over passenger documentation and how to treat the heavily militarised Line of Control separating the two sides of divided Kashmir have delayed the talks for several months.

Road and air links between Pakistan and India have already been restored after then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held out an olive branch to Pakistan in April, 2003, a year after the countries came to the brink of a fourth war.

Singh and Kasuri are due to meet again in early September, after teams from both countries hold a series of talks on disputes ranging from water sharing to a Himalayan battlefield on the Siachen Glacier.