India made a dramatic U-turn in its Kashmir policy today, announcing that its deputy prime minister will hold talks with the Kashmiri separatists it has shunned and tried to discredit for 13 years.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was today becoming the first Indian prime minister in 16 years to hold a public rally in troubled Jammu-Kashmir state.

INDIAN-RULED Kashmir ended the first stage of state assembly elections yesterday against a backdrop of violence and in the shadow of a tense confrontation between nuclear powers India and Pakistan.