India offers to discuss Kashmir issue with Pakistan ..

New Delhi: Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai has said that India is willing to talk about the disputed territory of Kashmir with Pakistan as part of an effort to advance peace talks.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Mathai suggest that a recent thaw in relations between the two countries could lead to discussions on the key territorial issue, which has been off the table since 2007.

Pakistan needs to take serious action against the militants that use its soil to attack on India, he added.

Mathai said Pakistan’s failure to clamp down on militant groups that have attacked India is the major roadblock to peace talks.

He said it was deeply troubling to India that Pakistani militant leader Hafiz Saeed was able to address public gatherings and appear on television.

Mathai said New Delhi views recent moves by Pakistan, including an agreement in February to open its markets to Indian goods, as a signal Islamabad is serious about an improvement in ties.

“I wouldn’t have been as optimistic six months ago,” Mr. Mathai said about prospects for the latest round of peace talks, which began in earnest a year ago. “The fact the government is able to move on the trade track shows there’s a greater willingness to take things forward by all the players.”

As the talks develop, India would consider reopening a serious discussion on Kashmir, Mr. Mathai said. New Delhi, he added, “would be happy” to start talks toward a deal to keep Kashmir’s borders as they are but allow greater trade and movement of people across the Line of Control, the de facto frontier that divides the territory.

“Unless the Jammu and Kashmir issue is resolved we cannot expect lasting peace in South Asia,” the Journal quoted Abdul Basit, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, as saying.