By Krittivas Mukherjee
THIMPHU, Bhutan (Reuters) - The prime ministers of nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan will hold talks on Thursday, the two sides said, their first meeting in nine months that is seen as another effort at improving their frayed ties.
India halted peace talks with Pakistan after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, saying the process could be revived only if Islamabad acted against Pakistan-based militants it blamed for the killings.
No major breakthrough is expected in Thursday's meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani, which analysts say may have a limited aim of keeping alive the idea of engagement.
The United States has been urging the two sides to reduce tension so that Pakistan can focus on fighting the Taliban on its western border with Afghanistan.
Gilani and Singh are in Bhutan for a summit of South Asian leaders.
"It has been agreed through diplomatic channels that prime ministers of India and Pakistan will hold a bilateral meeting at Thimphu on Thursday," the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Pakistani ministry issued the same statement. Neither gave any information about what the two leaders might discuss.
The two sides have been tentative about engaging since Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met her Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir in New Delhi in February but failed to achieve a breakthrough.
That meeting, nonetheless, was seen as a small step towards repairing ties between the two South Asian rivals who have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
HAVERT BREAKDOWN
Differences over the nature of talks have held up a further meeting, as Pakistan wants India to restart the peace process, while India wants to go slow until Islamabad acts against the Mumbai attack planners.
Although Singh and Gilani briefly exchanged pleasantries in Washington this month, a meeting in Thimphu will be their first substantial contact since controversial talks in Egypt in July when the two agreed not to make the peace process conditional on actions against terrorism.
That move was slammed by Indian opposition leaders as diluting India's stand that peace talks could only resume when Pakistan acted against the planners of the attack. The protests forced the government into the defensive on its Pakistan policy.
Thursday's meeting could set the stage for the foreign ministers of the two sides and their top diplomats to prepare the agenda for a more detailed engagement, analysts said.
And given the strong domestic sensitivities of the two countries, it was unlikely that the two leaders would want to take bold steps forward.
"There will be no breakthrough, but they will want to avert a breakdown, which is a familiar pattern, particularly after the Mumbai attacks," said Uday Bhaskar, head of National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi-based strategic affairs think-tank.
Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Jeremy Laurence
Reuters India
