In a first major indication of a thaw in recent tension between Pakistan and India, top diplomats of the nuclear- armed neighbours had a first meeting Thursday - in Colombo, Sri Lanka - since the Mumbai terror attack last year, dpa reported.
The development came ahead of the next week's regional visit of chief of US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who will help the two countries in the Mumbai probe.
According to a Pakistani foreign ministry press statement, the foreign secretaries of the two countries held talks on the sidelines of a meeting of South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC)standing committee and agreed to work together for regional peace and stability.
The normalization of Indo-Pak ties had been set in motion before the arrival of FBI chief Robert Mueller to help complete Mumbai terror probe in which US agency played key role by assisting exchange of information between the two countries.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Basit said the country's top diplomat Salman Bashir urged his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon to restart the peace process that was launched in 2004 but stalled after the November 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks that left more than 70 people dead and over 150 injured.
India has pressed Pakistan to bring the alleged Pakistani mastermind and facilitators of the carnage to justice.
Separately, Basit told reporters in Islamabad that American FBI director Mueller is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on March 4, adding he would arrive from India.
"We understand that they (US) have helped India in their ongoing investigations and we hope they will assist us by way of providing any further information and intelligence they may have," Basit said.
Another senior official in Pakistan's foreign ministry said that a team of senior FBI investigators would also accompany Mueller and interrogate the six suspects held by Pakistani authorities in connection with Mumbai attack
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the visit of FBI chief shows that Washington is encouraging the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors to carry forward the Mumbai probe to their logical conclusion and ease mutual tensions.
Washington wants Pakistan to normalize relations with India and focus on its war against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants launching cross-border attacks on US-led international forces in Afghanistan, he added.
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