India and Pakistan yesterday said their peace process was "irreversible".They also pledged to boost transport links across Kashmir, as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf wrapped up an upbeat three-day visit.

"The two leaders had substantive talks on all issues. They determined that the peace process was now irreversible," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, reading from a joint statement while Musharraf looked on.

The Pakistani leader, on his first visit to India since 2001 when a summit with then premier Atal Behari Vajpayee collapsed over Kashmir, told newspaper editors in New Delhi earlier that progress in the talks had exceeded expectations because of the "very flexible" approach shown by both sides.

He cautioned that Kashmir remained a flashpoint but ruled out a military option.

"Unless we resolve the dispute it can erupt again in a future time under a different leadership," Musharraf said.

Musharraf also said India and Pakistan should end their dispute over a strategic Kashmir glacier, where cold has killed more soldiers than enemy fire, so scientists can carry out research.

"The sky is the limit. We can then carry out all research together of the (Siachen) glacier."

Singh and Musharraf met at least four times during the Pakistani leader's three-day visit, spending Sunday watching a cricket clash between India and Pakistan before settling into extensive talks.

The joint statement said the two countries had agreed to increase the frequency of a bus service between Srinagar in Indian Kashmir and Muzaffarabad in the Pakistani zone and to allow trucks on the route to promote trade.

They also announced that new bus services would start between Poonch in southern Indian Kashmir and Rawal-akot, across the international border in Pakistan.

More contact between families separated by the heavily militarised ceasefire line in Kashmir, known as the Line of Control, would also be promoted, the statement said.

"There is no single royal road to success but we are moving forward," Singh told members of the Editors' Guild.

"We cannot resolve problems in one meeting. But we have evolved a certain amount of commonality."

Four Islamic rebel groups in Kashmir, however, accused the Pakistani leader of having "sold out Kashmir to India for trade and tourism. He has knelt before India. There is no precedent of such a meek surrender in the history of Pakistan," said a statement issued in Srinagar by Al Nasireen, Save Kashmir Movement, Farzandan-e-Milat and Al Arifeen. The groups had warned Kashmiris against travelling in the Srinagar-Muza-ffarabad bus, labelling it a "coffin".

Political analysts hailed the positive statements made by both sides. "We are now moving forward toward dealing with the problem (of Kashmir). If the peace process is irreversible, it has a huge significance," said C Raja Mohan, who teaches politics at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

lThe Pakistani coast guard arrested 36 Indian fishermen and seized their eight boats yesterday for illegally fishing i n Pakistan's waters in the Arabian Sea and fishing, an official said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (left) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following a joint press conference in New Delhi on Monday. (AFP)