India and Pakistan yesterday agreed to restart peace talks suspended since train bombings killed more than 200 people in Mumbai in July.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to the talks after meeting at exclusive government protocol houses on Havana's outskirts during the Non-aligned Movement summit.

"We have directed our foreign secretaries to resume dialogue," the Indian premier said, reading from a joint statement, alongside Musharraf.

"On the Kashmir issue, there have been useful discussions," Singh added.

The two leaders reached the breakthrough after an hour of talks - largely on the Kashmir dispute - which were the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the Mumbai bombings. "It was agreed the peace process must be maintained and respected and success is important for both countries and the region," Singh read from the statement.

"We strongly condemn all acts of terrorism and agreed terrorism was a scourge that needs to be dealt with," he added.

Singh also said India and Pakistan agreed on a mechanism to identify terror threats in the region.

Musharraf had expressed optimism on Friday that the meeting could lead to a cease-fire along their common border in the Himalayan mountains.

"A historic opportunity like this must be seized by the leadership of the two countries to bring to a close the chapter and tension in our region," Musharraf said on Friday in his speech to the Non-aligned Movement.

In his address to more than 55 national leaders attending the NAM summit, Singh made no mention of the bilateral talks or the Kashmir issue but insisted the national leaders gathered in Havana must express their determination "to fight and eliminate the scourge of terrorism".

The Indian premier had said he would remind Musharraf of his promise to rein in militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba which are battling Indian rule over part of Kashmir.

But the Pakistani president has suggested he had little sway over the militants, whom he has said were "trying to kill me". And he urged the NAM leaders to "clearly oppose the sinister tendencies to equate terrorism with Islam".

Meanwhile, three separate gun battles in Indian Kashmir killed at least six suspected militants and wounded two policemen yesterday, police said. The Indian army's special forces shot and killed three suspected militants in a densely forested area of Gurwatan, 110km south of Srinagar.

Earlier yesterday, police and the army cordoned off the village of Wahipora following a tip that suspected militants were hiding there. Rebels opened fire as government forces converged on their hide-out in the village, 40km south of Srinagar, police said.

Pakistan yesterday arrested 25 Indian fishermen and impounded four boats for entering its territorial waters in the Arabian sea, a Pakistani maritime official said. The fishermen were arrested 50km inside Pakistan's exclusive economic zone waters.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf(L) shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prior to a meeting in Havana. (AFP)

News Agencies