Pakistan offers quake aid to India

Pakistan offered relief and rescue assistance to India in the wake of the tidal waves that killed thousands of people on its southern coast, as the nuclear-armed rivals began two-day peace talks today.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan opened the negotiations between their foreign secretaries in Islamabad by extending sympathy for the “massive destruction in southern India caused by earthquake and tidal waves”.

“Pakistan offered assistance in relief and rescue,” Khan said after the first day of talks, which reviewed progress on a year long peace process aimed at ending 57 years of hostility between the neighbouring countries.