Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held his first bilateral talks with India's new government on Friday, hoping to sustain a nascent peace process and end decades of hostility over Kashmir. Musharraf, one of the chief architects of a formal peace dialogue launched with New Delhi in January, met Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, who was in Islamabad for a regional forum but also to review what the negotiations had achieved so far. There was no immediate word on what was discussed. Since 2002, the two countries have agreed to a series of confidence building measures including restoring transport links and holding a hugely popular cricket series. Despite concern that the process has slowed since the Congress Party came to power in India in a May election, replacing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, both sides are keen to show that nothing has changed. But progress on resolving the decades-old dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, at the heart of their enmity, has been slow.
