India and Pakistan open talks

India and Pakistan opened high-level talks yesterday aimed at solving their decades-old dispute over Kashmir with Pakistan denying it arms and trains a separatist insurgency in the region and accusing India of human rights abuses there.

The war of words over Kashmir - the cause of two major armed conflicts between the nuclear-armed rivals - threatened to complicate the wide-ranging talks between Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and his Indian counterpart, Natwar Singh.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his country was committed to peace, but it would not be held hostage to the Kashmir issue, placed centre-stage by Pakistan.