国际英语新闻：Pakistani experts welcome India's intention for talks

ISLAMABAD, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Declaring Pakistan and India consent to revive the composite dialogue a positive sign, experts in Pakistan on Thursday stress on the quick start of the dialogue for the regional peace and progress.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh decided to restart the dialogue during a one-on-one meeting for one hour on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference in Thimphu, Bhutan.

"The meeting between the two prime ministers was a positive one and concluded on a very positive note, a right step in the right direction and they also agreed to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries," said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistani Foreign Minister.

Abida Hussain, a senior Pakistani politician and former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, termed the talks as very productive in account of prevailing issues between the two countries like Kashmir, security and water.

"This is a countable breakthrough since the Indian Prime Minister showed willingness to start the dialogue to resolve all pending issues," Hussain told Xinhua.

She said that Pakistan, which is facing a series of water and electricity shortage, has planned to give priority to and focus on water issues besides other major ones.

"This meeting is much fruitful because it provided both leaders to say their heart talks to each other but it does not mean the dialogue will be started quickly," said Agha Zafar Halali, a former Pakistani ambassador.

India stopped the peace dialogues with Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, in which over 170 people were killed. India blamed on Pakistan-based militants for the attacks.

It is the second formal meeting between the two PMs after 2009 when they met in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh and vowed to continue the dialogue process to resolve all big issues. But the Indian Prime Minister faced pressure from the opposition and failed to push forward the process of talks.

In February 2010, the two sides held a foreign secretary level talk, the first official talk in 15 months but failed to achieve any breakthrough.

Experts in Pakistan are of the view that Pakistan wants to restart the peace process but Singh is not the final authority to decide anything on India-Pakistan relations.

"He is not an independent negotiator," said Gohar Ayub Khan, a senior politician and former speaker in Pakistan's lower house.

"Actually India is an establishing economy after China in the world so to convince or pressurize her for any negotiation is a very hard job," said Khan.

But Halali differs from the Khan' views and said some other channel is pressuring India to start the dialogue with Pakistan.

"America asked India to keep moderate relations with Pakistan because the U.S. doesn't want to engage Pakistan in any other issue other than war against terrorism," Halali said.