The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan and India opened a new round of senior-level peace talks Friday despite a bomb attack on India's Kabul embassy which New Delhi has blamed on the Pakistani spy service, officials said.

The talks, part of a peace process launched in 2004, would focus on trade and transport links between the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.

"The working group meeting will discuss measures to facilitate travel and trade across Line of Control," which separates the two zones of the disputed Himalayan territory, it said in a statement.

The Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers, who met in Islamabad in May had agreed to hold a meeting of the working group to discuss and promote confidence-building measures.

The Kashmir dispute has been the trigger for two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad-backed Islamic militants of waging an insurgency in the disputed Himalayan territory Kashmir and of triggering attacks in other parts of the country.

Pakistan strongly denies it arms or trains the militants.

The meeting comes days after New Delhi blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for the July 7 attack on its embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 40 people. Pakistan rejected the allegations.

While ties have warmed since a peace process started in 2004, after the countries nearly went to a fourth war, there has been little progress in their main dispute over Kashmir, and both suspect each other's involvement in revolts raging in border areas.

The Indian government also faces a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday and with doubts about its survival, analysts say there will no breakthroughs between the two sides.

Efforts to build trust received a setback last week when India's national security adviser blamed Pakistan's intelligence service for a suicide car-bomb attack in Kabul that killed 41 people, including two Indian diplomats.

Analysts say the attack will reinforce India's fear Pakistan's new civilian government, formed four months ago, had failed to clamp down on state-sponsored violence towards India.

"Tensions on account of terrorism will continue," G. Parthasarathy, India's former High Commissioner to Islamabad, told Reuters.

"It is clear the civilian government has no control over the terrorist activities directed against India."

India accuses Pakistan of backing a 20-year-old separatist revolt in Kashmir, which both sides claim in full but rule in part, and trying to hit Indian interests abroad.