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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India Tuesday reached a broad understanding on the modalities and time-frame for commencing the composite dialogue. The JS-level talks continued for the second day today for another round of consultations.

'Pakistan Times', the first independent daily web newspaper of Pakistan understands that the two delegations came with responses to the various proposals exchanged on Monday.

Their recommendations will now be taken up at a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries today, Wednesday for the third round of talks.

Shashank Arrives

Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank arrived earlier in the day to represent his country at the talks.

Meanwhile, the Indian delegation led by Joint Secretary Arun K. Singh, paid a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar on Tuesday.

During the call, the progress in the first round of talks was reviewed. Khokhar told the Indian delegation he was looking forward to his dialogue with his Indian counterpart today, February-18.

Wrap-up

And in New Delhi, the Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank Tuesday said that he was looking forward to meeting his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz H Khokhar in Islamabad and they would hopefully be able to wrap up the ongoing process of talks on Wednesday.

He was talking to state-run news agency of Pakistan before leaving for Pakistan at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"Pakistan-India talks have already started at Joint secretaries level between Jaleel Abbas Jilani, Director General for South Asia and Arun Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Indian Ministery of External Affairs.

"Hopefully they will be able to reach an agreement on most of the issues today and then we can wrap up the process tomorrow and report back to respective foreign ministers and other senior leadership".

Expectations

To a question about his expectations from the present dialogue process towards resolving outstanding issues including Kashmir dispute, the Foreign Secretary said, "outline has already been prepared and it is a comprehensive document which has been agreed to by both the sides at the highest level." So what is required now is that "we start the process sincerely."

Word Media Reax

The print, electronic and online (internet) media of the United States has given headline and top story treatment to the resumed three-day Pakistan-India talks in Islamabad, saying the dialogue is being held on "all issues" including Kashmir.

The media here is appreciative of the mutual desire in Pakistan and India to thrash out irritants and reach lasting solution of problems in the best interest of peace, amity and stability.

CNN

CNN reported early Tuesday that "middle-ranking bureaucrats from the two countries' foreign ministries are meeting to pave the way for talks on Wednesday between the two foreign secretaries.

Quoting Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan, the report says the three-day session was "being undertaken to structure the dialogue, make it more predictable."

"Right now what you have is the political will of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee behind these talks," Khan said, adding: "There's a new momentum. That momentum must be maintained."

CNN adds, in a statement released in New Delhi, the Indian government said it was satisfied with the talks so far.

Fox News

The Fox News quoting Masood Khan says: "Pakistan is approaching these talks sincerely and earnestly. We hope that India would demonstrate matching reciprocity."

The two sides are likely to set up expert groups to discuss a dispute over the flow of water to Pakistan from the Wullar barrage in India's Jammu-Kashmir state and fighting at the world's highest battle ground in Siachen, a glacier located 18,000 feet high in the Himalayan territory.

VOA

Of Monday's talks, a VOA report says, Pakistan and India have resumed a stalled peace dialogue after a gap of nearly three years. At the end of the first round of talks Monday, Foreign Office Spokesman, told reporters the discussions were held in a "cordial atmosphere and constructive manner."

The two have since re-established full diplomatic relations, and direct travel between the two countries has resumed.

Boston Globe

Victoria Burnett of the Boston Globe reports from Islamabad that "there will be no fanfare, no hype, little buildup of expectation. Just a group of senior bureaucrats trying to hash out an agenda for tackling the thorny issues that divide the nuclear-armed rivals, most painful among them the disputed region of Kashmir."

"There's a deliberate effort to keep things low-key," said Tanvir Ahmed Khan, former foreign secretary from 1989 to 1991.

The report says: "Both countries are anxious not to repeat the mistakes of earlier peace efforts, where advance publicity contributed to the drama and disappointment of failure."

Besides Kashmir, the 1997 agenda includes the disputed areas of Siachen, a sky-high Himalayan glacier, and Sir Creek, a border region near the Indian state of Gujarat, plus Indian plans for a dam in Kashmir that Pakistan says could deprive its portion of water supplies. It also includes travel, trade, terrorism, and drug-related issues.

Beyond this week's talks, the way will continue to be paved by back-channel negotiations, analysts in Islamabad say.

AP

Meanwhile, Indian external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha said in New Delhi: "I am quite optimistic over the outcome of this round of talks," says an AP report.

"India, Pakistan hail momentum in talks," says a headline in the Christian Science Monitor report Tuesday.

Reuters

A Reuters report appearing in many newspapers, including the Washington Post says: "India and Pakistan aim to revive a "composite dialogue" over eight areas of disagreement, a process that ran aground in 1998 and finally collapsed at a failed summit in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001."

Under the previous composite dialogue, it adds, foreign secretaries were to discuss the Kashmir dispute as well as "peace and security," code for a range of confidence-building measures meant to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear exchange.

AFP

Earlier a foreign ministry official told AFP Pakistan has asked India to negotiate a joint agreement to lower the threat of war between the nuclear-armed rivals.

A foreign ministry official said Pakistan hoped that its suggestion for "strategic restraint regime" would become part of the agenda.

"The proposal calls on the two sides to negotiate the threshold for minimum nuclear deterrence," said the official, asking to remain anonymous. "There should not be an open-ended race for strategic or conventional arms. It also aims to limit the risk of a nuclear conflict and a missile race."