AGRA, India (Islamweb & Agencies) - Despite more cross-border firing by their soldiers in Kashmir, the leaders of bitter rivals India and Pakistan pursued peace and nuclear security during their first formal talks in more than two years on Sunday.
They also agreed to meet again soon. (Read photo caption below).
With the white marble domes of the Taj Mahal a symbolic backdrop to their landmark summit, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met for talks that appeared to have gone better than anyone had expected.
Even as they discussed peace, their forces exchanged gun fire across the border dividing disputed Kashmir for a second straight day, the first such flare-up this year. Fighting between soldiers and Islamic Resistance groups left 20 people dead, officials said, raising the weekend toll to 49.
The dispute over the Himalayan region has ignited two of the nations' three wars - the last in 1971. With India and Pakistan now touting nuclear weapons, it is widely feared Kashmir could become the focus of a wider conflict.
One highlight of the leaders' meeting was agreement to keep talking. Vajpayee accepted an invitation from Musharraf to visit Islamabad, officials said. They also decided to meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September.
Though only 20 minutes of private talks had been planned, they spoke one-on-on for nearly two hours at the Jaypee Palace hotel in Agra, 110 miles southeast of the Indian capital.
They talked through a working lunch of soups, kebabs and Indian dishes, and again for several hours before a performance of Indian classical music and a dinner banquet. Delegates and Cabinet ministers sat in on some of the sessions.
Musharraf also took a break to visit the Taj Mahal with his wife, Sehba. Erected by Muslim Moguls who once ruled most of the subcontinent, the Taj is symbolic of the common history shared by Pakistan and India. Musharraf is in India for three days.
A Vajpayee aide who attended the talks said the leaders were cordial and chatty. He said they also discussed a proposed natural gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.
But Pakistan said the focus was Kashmir.
The statement said Musharraf agreed to listen to other matters brought up by Vajpayee, ``but no other issue could be addressed until the core issue of Kashmir is resolved.''
In a possible show of goodwill, India pulled out 20,000 troops from Kashmir ahead of the summit, according to media reports. A defense ministry spokesman refused to confirm or deny the report in the Indian Express daily newspaper Sunday.
India has between 300,000 and 600,000 forces in the northern state of Jammu-Kashmir along the Pakistan border.
Since Muslim Pakistan was carved out of Hindu-majority India following independence from Britain, both have claimed the entire Jammu-Kashmir region. A cease-fire line from the 1971 war divides it between them, with two-thirds in India and the remainder under Pakistan's control.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf (L) salutes beside Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh (C), and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the northern Indian city of Agra, July 15, 2001. Vajpayee and Musharraf met on Sunday at a summit both sides hope will help ends years of enmity. The two leaders met at the Jaypee Palace hotel in Agra, the home of India's famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski