Signs of discord emerged between India and Pakistan as foreign ministers from the nuclear-armed rivals met yesterday to review and advance a peace process that has faltered recently over Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri and Indian counterpart Natwar Singh shook hands and voiced commitment to friendly relations before sitting down for one-on-one talks followed by delegation level discussions.

“The meetings were held in a friendly, cordial and affable and constructive atmosphere,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters after the first session.

“There is a determination to take this forward and make progress in whatever fields we can.” The talks end today.

But there were few smiles, and tensions are already emerging over the decades-old feud in Kashmir which both claim.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained on Saturday that Pakistan had failed to keep a promise to prevent Islamic militants sneaking into Indian Kashmir to join a revolt there, or to scrap guerrilla training camps on its soil.

“This issue of cross-border infiltration and infrastructure of terrorism is a matter of concern and that has been raised at all the meetings,” foreign ministry spokesman Sarna said.

Pakistan on the other hand fears that India, which controls the heart of Kashmir, is dragging its feet and is unwilling to engage in a serious dialogue over the region.

But Islamabad’s attempt to force the pace, focus attention on the disputed Himalayan region and draw Kashmiris into the peace process drew an angry Indian response.

“There is considerable disappointment here today at the unifocal statement made by the Pakistan foreign minister about India-Pakistan relations prior to his departure from Islamabad,” Sarna said on Saturday.

“This is not in consonance with the spirit in which we have conducted the composite dialogue so far. It also violates Pakistan’s own call for a rhetoric restraint regime.”

<B>A new sense of purpose</B>

In reiterating Pakistan’s long-held views on Kashmir, Kasuri had implicitly blamed Indian intransigence for the impasse. “All along, the question before us has been very simple. We should give the Kashmiris the choice to determine their own future. This choice should have been given them in August 1947. But, 57 years later, we are still at the starting line.”

Kasuri said he would try to persuade New Delhi to involve Kashmiris in the dialogue process, something India has resisted.

Kasuri tried to calm the waters on yesterday. “I want to clarify that we are not unifocal,” he told reporters. “We will have to talk on all issues.”

The neighbours, who went to the brink of war in 2002, embarked on a peace process last January with a new sense of purpose. But some of that hope has dissipated in recent months, especially after Singh’s Congress party won back power in May, replacing the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Since then, the two sides have aired decades-old differences over Kashmir.

“We are not afraid of discussing Jammu and Kashmir, but we do not buy the argument that is the only issue affecting our two countries,” Singh said.

He said his government expected Pakistan to make “an honest effort” to counter Islamic militants and implement what was promised in January.

“Our view is that the starting point of this whole dialogue process was the statement in January of President (Pervez) Musharraf that Pakistani territory will not be used to provide any encouragement to acts of terrorism.” “So the dialogue can only move forward if terrorism is under control,” he said.

Top foreign ministry officials from both countries agreed on Saturday to broaden and deepen the peace process.

<B>Simon denyer</B>